The Classics

It's been a while since our family participated in the Cluster's Capitol Hill Classic -- the annual school fundraiser that involves a 10k, 3k and fun run. In part because it's been a while since our family was in the Cluster, but also because, quite frankly, we didn't exactly kill it last time.

But five years has passed! Owen is now in sixth grade and was on the school baseball team! Nora is training for the Girls on the Run 5k! Surely we can handle three kilometers. Besides, Aunt Katherine is in town now and she loves to run! So we signed Aunt Katherine up for the 10k and decided the rest of us would stick to the 3k.

The first sign of trouble was that Aunt Katherine didn't finish under her "worst case" scenario time. It was humid, and the water stations were sparse and too far apart and multiple runners said that while a 10k typically equals 6.2 miles, on the Classic course it was 6.4 miles.

But the kids were excited. And their friends were there (and Mom Mom and Grandpa). And we were only running 3k (which in Classic terms is 2 miles). And it was all great... for the first two blocks. I told the kids that Mom Mom, Grandpa and Aunt Katherine would be waiting on East Capitol and we just had to run there so they could get a picture. Only they got confused on the route and ended up near the finish instead of the start. By the time we realized we weren't about to see them, the kids were mad that they were running for nothing and started walking. Slowly.

Around the halfway mark, Allen managed to rally Owen and they jogged the rest of the way, finishing a respectable 23:53. Nora would sporadically run in between bouts of complaining (I have to go the bathroom! It's hotter now then it was before!), but sprinted at the end for a decent 29:07.

They were in much better spirits (well mostly) after a series of water fights with their friends and some bagels and we were in much better spirits once we had some tacos and frozen margaritas/cervesas in us.


Until next year!