the mayor's run

On Saturday, Doron, Collin and I headed down to the annual Mayor's Run at the state capitol. We usually do everything in our posse of 5, so it was a different (and fun!) experience to have Collin all to ourselves. Amazing how much you can interact with your child when you don't have two little ones clamoring for attention. :-) It was a great morning!


Here's the Nebraska state capitol.


Collin is watching the first heat of the race. The older kids run first (which would have been great to know ahead of time so I could have slept an extra hour).




Ah yes, the balloons. LOVED the balloons!


Doron and Collin doing a little dance (or something)...




Finally it was time for Collin's heat. Here he is on Doron's shoulders, ready to go!


Ahhhhh....the beautiful balloons. I mean, here's the starting line.
(This picture makes me smile. I was lost in a sea of people and couldn't see a thing. So I held my camera above my head like a total pro and took this shot. A total pro, or else I looked completely ridiculous). Whatever. I got the shot.



Everyone waiting for the gun to go off.


OK, someone please drag me away from the balloons.


And here's where the photographic breakdown occurred. This isn't Collin taking off from the starting line. As soon as the gun fired, I immediately lost him in the crowd. I couldn't even see Doron it was so crowded. This is the second lap around the block.


And no, sadly this picture (below) is not Collin crossing the finish line. This is about 10 seconds after the previous one. Right after Collin ran by, I was supposed to hi-tail it around the capitol building (which, if you know me is pretty hysterical. Skinny doesn't equal 'in shape,' people!) Well, I got stuck on my side of the street and couldn't cross to the other side because the runners kept coming and coming. Finally, there was a break in the pack, and I went flying across the street, across the capitol lawn, huffing and puffing...about to have a coronary in my tight jeans and flip flops.

I probably looked like a gangly, goofy giraffe, arms and legs flailing in every direction. I nearly got tangled up with a dog, and I ran right through a toddler's photo shoot on the lawn. At last I reached the finish line, assumed the position, prepared myself to snap a picture of my son crossing the finish line, when all of a sudden..."RING! RING!" My cell phone goes off and I hear Doron saying "Hey, where are you? We're right behind you on the capitol steps drinking Gatorade. Come on over!"


Oh riiiiight, those steps.


Collin had finished the mile in 10 minutes and 5 seconds, and I got there sometime around 12 minutes. Anyway, it was a beautiful morning, an awesome experience, and I'm so glad I got to go. Doron and I took Collin out to lunch, and it was wonderful just spending time with him.


I got up at 6:00am for this race, and need a nap pronto! So I'm dragging the rest of my pictures into a collage and calling it a day.


Hope your Saturday was great too!