Sibling rivalry from the start. The plan was for my wife to run with my son and I was going to pace my daughter. This plan fell apart from the word go. The gun went off and I was passed by a red blur (my son). My wife was still getting over being sick and had told him he could run ahead. She figured, as I did, that he would sprint for about 100 yards and then start to fade. She was guessing that she would find him walking around mile 1. Well he’s up the road about 200 yards and my daughter is freaking out that her little brother is going to beat her. I had to almost hold her back to keep her from sprinting after him. I assured her that we would be seeing him again soon. Sure enough we catch him around the ½ mile mark. As we passed him I smiled and asked what he was thinking. This only caused him to take off again. We reeled him in again right at the 1 mile mark. He beat us to the mile mark by about 10 feet. He ran with us for about another ½ mile talking about how he beat us for the first mile. Told him that there were 3.1 miles in this race, just keep talking. He bolted again and was about 75 yards ahead at the turn around. When he passed us going the other way I could tell he was beginning to hurt. We made the turn, and saw my wife still heading out around the 2 mile mark. She commented that it looked like the little boy was going to beat us. He was 150 yards ahead at the 2 mile mark but the wheels were starting to come off. At this point my daughter is beginning to hurt and is going into hysterics about being beat by her brother. I assured her again that we would catch him just stick with our even pace. We catch him again with 1 mile to go. He’s starts to surge but can only get 10 yards away and then fades back. He continues the surges for the next ¾ miles. At this point both my daughter and son as hurting but neither wants the other to know. At this point I tell my daughter to stay about 5 yards behind him until you see the 3 mile mark. When you see the 3 mile mark, take off and don’t look back. When you pass him pick it up a little so he doesn’t try to go with you. We came around a corner and there’s the 3 mile mark. I wasn’t paying attention because the next thing I know she’s gone. I look up and they are both 40 yards up the road and running hard. Panic mode kicks in, I’m not going to get beat by both of them. I take off sprinting and catch them by the 3 mile mark. I slow to run in with my daughter just as my son stops to walk. In the years past she has tried to out kick me at the end but this year there is nothing left in her tank. We can see the finish line and she start to slow down to a walk. A little white lie about her bother right behind her gets her going again. We end up crossing the line together in 29:49. The boy comes in behind us in 31:54 (a lot of walking after he got passed). My wife was in at 43:55.

Course PR’s all around. Me and my daughter shaved 3 minutes off last year, my wife knocked 5 minutes off, and the big surprise of the day was the boy at over 15 minutes off last years time.

Very fun race with lots of drawing prizes at the end.