A New PR

Last Friday the kids had a "Run4Funds" event at school.  It's a big fundraiser done by the PTO to raise money for the school.  This year all the money will go to update the library and the plans are pretty cool.  I've never been a big fan of this fundraiser, but it's growing on me and the kids love it.  Basically, the kids are supposed to get people to sponsor them and give them money for each lap they do around a very small track.  Each lap is 1/16th of a mile.  I didn't realize this the first year that Andy did Run4Funds and I tought that each lap was the size of a lap on a normal track.  I sponsored him $2 a lap and I owed sixty-something dollars by the end of the run.  I was not happy.

Fast forward a few years and both of the kids are doing it.  Last year I didn't go and the kids weren't very happy with me so this year not only did I go but I ran with them.  That may not sound like a big deal, but in both grades I was the only parent running with their kid.  I wasn't the only adult because some of the teachers ran too, but I was the only parent (except the art teacher did run with her daughter who is in Andy's grade).

Sarah's grade was the first group to go and we ran for 30 minutes around the track.  She ran as much as she could but Sarah can't run that well so we walked about half of it.  She did end up doing 17 laps, which was a new PR (that's runner lingo for Personal Record) from the 12 she did last year.  I did help with the last half of laps 16 and 17 by carrying her on my back, but she was so, so happy that she completed a mile and I was pretty proud of her as well.

I got an hour break and then came back to run with Andy.  I wasn't so sure that he would really want his mom there with him, but he seemed cool with it.  He wanted me to pace him, but my pace was a little fast so I just did what he did.  There was one lap where he sprinted as fast as he could and I barely kept up with him.  Pretty impressive since he looks like he runs really slow.  In the end he had a new PR too and he thanked me for coming out to run with him.

In the end I was so glad I did it with them and hope that they remember it as fondly as I do.  I guess we're starting a new tradition!