Prairie Fire 5K

Sunday, May 1st

The time came for our school's run club to participate in the main event! This was the race we had all been training for. We met at 7:30 in the morning for a 7:50am start time. Emma was set to run with her teacher and another little girl, and Isaac and I were run buddies. He'd been running about a 10mile pace in practice with the fast group. I'd been running a few groups slower but my body was itching to run faster so it was going to be interested. I was there to help pace Isaac at the start and then encourage him as it got harder toward the end. 

It was so fun to get to do this with them. We picked up our race packets after soccer on Saturday and then we drove the race course so Emma and Isaac could see where we were going to be running (always a good idea to do as a race participant). 

Sunday morning:

Warm ups with our run club. 

Emma's running group for the race:

 

Kyle arrived with the other two kids before the start of the race, so he got to see us off. 

Some photos that were shared in our group during the race:

Isaac and I coming in for the finish

Emma coming in for the finish. I just love how she picked it up right at the end. Check out the video.

 

Emma's finish from Kyle's view:

We all met up at the end

And our results. So fun to run this together! 

November 20, 2021 - Kyle runs the Turkey Trot 10mile

Saturday morning Kyle got up and headed to the race start. We had planned it and timed the map so we could hopefully see him. They were suppose to run down the west side of the river, then up the right by the keeper and back down to end at Century II. So we arrived at the keeper... it was pretty cold (for Kansas). Waiting... no runners anywhere, which I thought was odd. I just wondered if maybe this was a really small race. Waiting, waiting. Enjoying the scenery since we'd been quarantined for two weeks. 

 

Then I get this text from Kyle, lol. He was at the finish line. So we loaded up in the van to go meet up with him. 

Apparently the map they had online was WRONG! They ran south of Douglas along the river. We weren't the only ones waiting in the spot, since the map online showed that as part of the course... ugh. 

 

Got a few photos, enjoyed the fresh air. Then Kyle and Isaac went to get tested (since the girls, me and Thomas all tested negative the day before) I lost count of how many times we tested we were going about every 3 days. But we had tickets to a football game the next day and just wanted to be sure we were covid free. 

After lunch we went to the Great Plains Nature Center for a little walk. It had warmed up by then. The thing about Kansas weather is, it's winter in the morning and summer in the afternoon, literally! 

 

Mary and Emma making pot holders later that same day. 

Kyle's Duathlon & Run Like a Girl

September 28th Kyle had his first bike run event. It was a Duathlon. Since the weather for swimming had passed this was the next best thing. He said it's his trial go before he dives into swim training for a tri. The duathlon consisted of a 3.5 mile run, then a 13 mile bike, and finishes with a 2.5 mile run. It was out in Lake Elmo which is quite a hike from our place (much like the White Bear Lake one was for me) Kyle left early and headed that way then I followed with the kids. We arrived just before start time. Here is Kyle getting ready for the run. It was somewhat chilly, not super cold and the sun helped it to be warm, but I had wished I grabbed my jacket like I intended but forgot. 

We waited at transition for him to get in from the first leg - the run.

Off he goes on the bike. I knew this would be a while so we went exploring while he was out riding.

There was a man made pond that was drained, the kids had fun running around and climbing up on the lifeguard stands. The running kept them warm. 

It was about time for Kyle to come back in so we headed back over to transition to watch for him to come in off the bike. 

THERE HE IS!

Then he hopped off the bike and went out for the last run leg. 

Great finish and he really enjoyed it. His times:

First run: 24:16

T1: 0:35

Bike: 45:43

T2: 0:34

Run: 21:56

Total time of 1:33:02

Kyle had wonderful weather, where as for mine the next day was rainy yucky. We ran this last year and I was excited to partake again. It's a great cause and I had a wonderful visit with my friend Sarah. On par with God's rain on our last annual events, we ran our 5K visiting in the rain. This wasn't a timed event although they did have a timer going. We were not paying attention to that at all as it was pretty slow. Sarah is a fast runner and my goal was to keep up with her but she is going through a move and hadn't been running as usual so it worked out perfectly to visit and catch up. According to my watch we ran the 3.32 miles in just under 34 minutes.