One of many

We entered E into her first foot race. The "Rhino Run" at Potter Park Zoo was on a beautiful Saturday morning with close to perfect temperatures of the high 60's. before hand, my wife M pointed out that this race may not be as I expected, as E might stop to look at a bug or just plain want to sweep the sidewalk or who knows what else. I quickly dismissed this notion, as I already had the finish in sight

We arrived and went in to get her race packet. I was in full song and we were pumping her up for the event to come. We quickly got her number (1) as this was one of those non-competitive fun runs (yeah right!). I pinned the number to her behind, sooo cute to see! We then made our way to see the Artic Foxes and Otters who seemed very interested in all of the commotion of race day. E seemed mildly interested in them though maybe a bit anxious or just too many people.?? Race time came quickly so E and I went to the start line and got ready. We took a place toward the back if only to look inconspicuous with our intent.



... 5 4 3 2 1 GO!! The race started with me holding E to keep her from being trampled underfoot but she very quickly asked to get down to run. As we passed M, MHM and friends K and W she was on a dead run so I had to partially steer her toward them so M, MHM, K and W could properly cheer her on. We made it several hundred yards before she started saying that her side hurt. Wow, I really knew she was running hard but was a bit surprised by that. Adrenaline is good, but it will catch up to you sooner or later. I picked E up and began to understand where this was leading. I acknowledged M's warning and said to myself "we're going to have fun and I'm going to let E do as she will". As the crowd quickly thinned, E and I bounced from animal to animal. First the Snow leopards, then the Tigers then the Monkeys. E was still very much in the race. As we made time down the course, I would from time to time tell E that we have to run so we can "Win the race!" There were several race workers each lightly cheering us as we went. At one corner, a very nice and exuberant elderly gent really sparked E with praise and she started to run again. This lasted a short time and I think after that she was quite spent. I was surprised at the length of a 1K event.

Through it, I tried to keep E enthused but also tried to make sure she saw the animals. The Penguins, the Bear Cat the Peacocks and finally the Camels interested her. As we started nearing the finish, the crowd was cheering and the music was loud and the kids were lined up at the finish for the start of the second event. E charged up excitedly to M, MHM, K and W but didn't want to finish the race. Wearily with my help, she neared the finish line with prompts of loud cheers and yelling from throngs of excited race fans. E at this point was quite uneasy. After the big finish, we moved away from the crowd, by doing this, I really messed things up as sure enough, the "winners" medallions were all gone so my little E didn't get one for all of her hard effort. My fault????

With the race behind us, all E could think about was the "park" so we headed there where it was much quieter and more her speed. I pushed her on the swings with another E for quite some time and she seemed to enjoy that the most. With all of the fun and anticipation, I am glad we were able to break E into it in a mostly gentle fashion and for the record, I did have a very nice time and I did dream of the future when old or not Dad and E will cross yet another finish line together...