Yay Me. I Can Keep Up With a Toddler. Woo.

This morning I got up obscenely early (for me, anyway), hauled my daughter out of bed and drove about 80 miles to get to a "Turkey Trot." It was a 5K run for teens and adults and a 1K "Gobbler Dash" for 12 and unders.

I dressed for the weather, which was cold. I had on some good socks (picked up as a giveaway last year, but they are fantastic) and some ancient hiking boots. The boots belonged to my aunt about 20 years ago and when she was done with them, gave them to me--and I've had them for probably about 15 years. I put them on because I didn't know what the weather would be like and knew I would be warm, even though I swear each boot weighs about 5 pounds. Anyway, had on warm pants and a couple of shirts, and layered my daughter similarly.

My sister was running the 5K--despite her urgings for me to run it and my goals, I declined as I know I'm not ready to run the full distance. I did, however, let her enter my daughter in the 1K so that the cousins could do it together.

My sister did quite well (probably only the 7th woman to cross the finish line), but they haven't posted results yet, so I'm not yet sure how well. Then it was time for the little ones. When the gun went off, my nephew took off like a shot--so fast that my sister couldn't keep up with the jogger stroller and she yelled at me to keep my nephew on the course if we caught up to him.

We never did.

I was very proud of my daughter, who ran the whole way. A 1K is just over a half mile (.6 miles), which I knew she could do, but wasn't sure she could do running.

She can.

Know what? So can I. I realized, as I was jogging the race with her, that it is the farthest distance I've run in possibly a decade, and while keeping up with a 3-year-old is nothing to brag about normally, for me, it was actually yet another step in the right direction.

Know what else?

I think I could have gone 1) faster and 2) longer.

Even with my ancient heavy-duty hand-me-down hiking boots.

I'm really trying not to dwell on the fact that keeping up with a toddler is not a huge athletic feat, but rather that it is a definite change in my abilities since I started this blog.

Because if I couldn't look at it positively, I'd get pretty depressed instead.

Woo. Yay me.