Freedom Run 2014

Friday morning Jorge, Holly, my kids and I headed to Provo for the Freedom Run 10K.  This was Kobe's second time doing this race and McKenna's first time.  This is the only 10K I've ever done and I have done it for the past...I don't know, lots of years.  I kind of HATE shorter distance races but have found that I love running them with my kids.  This race can be quite entertaining because it runs along the 4th of July Parade route.  There are all sorts of crazy people out there, people who have been camping out through the night.  

On Wednesday's 3 mile run McKenna had quite a few aches and pains, her hip, gracilis, knee and ankle...pretty much everything hurt.  I worried that she wouldn't be able to run.  She decided she wanted to try and if need be she would stop at our parade spot which is a little before mile 4.  We used KT Tape on her inner thigh which lasted about 10 minutes, I kind of really hate that stuff.  How do people get that crap to stick?  Anyway, Kenna's goal was to come in under an hour, at least that's what she had told me a few days before and she wanted me to pace her to finish in that time.

Look at us all lined up in a row from tallest to smallest.

Jorge and Josh raced the 10K and Holly and I stuck with the kidlets. 

Kenna really needs to stop growing. 

Tall sock twins...looking good, hahaha!

I guess I wanted to add to my Pro Compression tan line, perma tall socks.  

 The gun went off and after walking for a bit we finally got past the starting line.  I tried to stay just a little bit in front of Kenna to keep her on pace, I noticed that whenever I slowed down to wait for her she would slow down too.  I stayed a few steps ahead and after we climbed the first hill I told her that we needed to catch Kobe and Holly who were just a little in front of us.  She wasn't speeding up, she had her ear phones in and had no interest in talking or really hearing what I had to say...teenagers ;D  I watched Kobe as he ran through all of the sprinklers, he is quite fun to watch run...he dances, skips, sings...all of it.

There they go! 

My favorite part of this race is seeing all of the hot air balloons.

Around mile 3 I told Kenna she was going to be really close to hitting her goal but that she would have to speed up just a little.  Apparently her goal had gone from sub 60 minutes to finishing without hurting herself.  I didn't realize she was in pain and felt bad for trying to pace her faster than she was wanting to go.  

At about mile 4 I could tell she was really hurting. 

 I could see Holly and Kobe and knew he would get under 60 minutes and hoped that wouldn't upset Kenna too much.  

Running selfie! 

Funny guy alright!

I thought that Kenna still had a pretty good chance of coming in close to an hour so the last mile I tried to speed up a little.  We were passing quite a few people and I think that helped push Kenna a little.  I knew she had more to give so at the finish I said, "Let's go, come on."  She sprinted into the finish and truth be told I could hardly keep up with her, she's a sprinter and I'm NOT.

 Jorge caught some sweet action shots of us sprinting to the finish.

She finished in 1:03:25 and Kobe finished in 1:00:00.  Holly said that Kobe ran so fast at the end that she thought he was going to go down, the kid was determined to finish in an hour.

 Congratulations buddy!

Thank you Holly for keeping Koko company on his run.

I can't remember Kobe's time from last year but I'm pretty sure he PR'd by about 10 minutes, go Koko!  Kenna did awesome and had never run further than 5 miles.  I can only imagine how fast she could have done it had she not been hurting.  I'm beyond proud of her for pushing herself and not walking at all, my kids are pretty dang awesome.

I sure do love these kids!

I'm a bit late telling you this but if you place an order for Pro Compression marathon socks or sleeves using promo code FOUR you will get 40% off plus free shipping, ends Sunday the 6th so get on it yo.  

Pro Compression has also come out with some women's workout leggings, use code LEG to get 30% off, I don't know how long that deal will go for so maybe just get on that one too.  I hope you all had a great 4th of July.