I took my daughter to a 5K today. It was one of those very well publicized races with just under 2000 people. I had picked up our race packet the day before. This was actually a really good thing as she dragged her feet in the morning and we got to the race start line just as the gun went off.
All was going good until 1/10 of a mile into it. She realizes that the silly rubberband thingy on her wrist was gone. She begins to freak out on me. She tells me she wants to go back to the start line and find it. Well being mean mommy I let her know that we are in a race and we do NOT go backwards for a silly rubberband thingy. The next mile and a half goes like this: whine, cry, angry outburst, more whine, more whine, more whine. Finally a water stop. This gives me a 25 seconds of silence as she drank her water.
I took this opportunity to speed her up some as all that whine really killed our pace. Funny enough, you can't gripe when you are panting and sucking wind. Did I mention I'm mean mommy?
Somewhere after mile 2 she gets into race mode. She buckles down and focuses on passing people. This is our best mile of the race. We come to the finish line and there are several hundered people on each side of the road cheering. My daughter breaks into a full sprint and finally crosses the finish line and runs straight to the goodies table for cookies, chips, and soda. Wow, she really is a chip off the old block. | 