Running 4 Danny & Friends...(year 2)

So as some of you know, this past Sunday was not just Father's day for us but also the day we ran the Culver City 5/10K for Autism. Its the second year that Christian and I have ran it and it looks like it might be a tradition in the making for our family.

Last year we had a small team under the name- Running 4 Danny and Friends, in honor of our Daniel and the many friends we have that are special needs children. I once again wore my team shirt that I had made for last year and ran for all kids listed on my back and many more.
 
Unfortunately our team got smaller this year as it was just Christian and I, but that's ok because my dear husband Jerry decided to join us and make this run his official first 5K! I was soo excited for him to be part of our team and to be able to say that we did this together for our baby.


He's been going on his own journey, and I have to say that he trained a lot harder than I did this year and I am sooo proud of him for accomplishing this goal for himself.
He's come such a long way.



As for myself,  this year has been extremely busy for me and I can't say I took the training as seriously as I did last year. I was a little bit more lax than I should have been, but I put myself through as many practices as I could.  Training consisted more of finding a jogging pace I could handle with some fast walking to make sure that I could finish in a decent time. My goal this year was not so much beating my time as it was just to complete it. Honestly I was more excited about the fact that my hubby was running with me and my son and that meant more to me than anything.


So because Chris truly hadn't trained much at all either (being the very busy and "tired" teenager that he is) he decided he was going to keep to my pace during the race. A very slow pace at that. However, we had all agreed that we knew that at some point we were all going to go at different paces which is exactly what happened. Jerry started the strongest out of the 3 of us and led the way, but Chris about 1/3 way into the race decided his body was kicking in with a second wind and took off. I trailed both of them most of the way, catching up to Jerry when I could, but he still came in before me.

This year I was much more into taking things in, enjoying my music and watching the other runners especially the 10k runners who started about 1/2 an hour later than we did and yet they seemed to be already catching up to me as I was barely trying to finish.

A highlight for me this year was actually catching a glimpse of a fellow blogger I follow. Jen Levine from Finding My Inner Bombshell.  She has no idea who I am, but I "knew" of her and knew she'd be at that race. So when I saw her, in a fleeting second, I made the decision to make a fool of myself and call out her name..."Jen!" I said. She turned around looking VERY schocked, and I went up to her, shook her hand and said as I jogged and huffed at the same time, said "You don't know me, but I follow your blog. Just wanted to say Hi!" She said "Ok, hi" and I took off again, smiling from ear to ear and giggling to myself. I regret not getting a picture with her, but I took the look of shock on her face to mean that maybe I had gone to far already, Lol. Anyway, that was a lot of fun, and I'm glad I took the chance to do that- we only live once for moments like that!  And I found out that It apparently made her day because she mentioned the "unknown woman who said hello" in her blog post.  Love it! I have since written to her and let her know that my name is Sandy, and that I wasn't just some crazy person...if you beg to differ, please keep that to yourself. Ha!


The biggest highlight for me though was actually watching Jerry cross the finish line ahead of me. I was soooo proud of him!  I was a mix of emotions as I came in close behind, knowing just how much it means to cross that finish line for the first time. Jerry is a modest guy and he was very tired and sweaty of course, so he made no fuss about any of it, but I know it had to have meant a lot. He did say though "I did it for our Danny Boy!" That said it all!

Our official times were as follows:
Chris had come in before the two of us at 37.01
Jerry came in just 90 seconds over his goal time at 41.14.
I think that's pretty amazing for his first 5K!

My official time was 41.34. I was over last year's time by 3 minutes or so, but considering the training I did and/or didn't do, I felt pretty good about it anyway.  It really was about doing this together this year.



Once again, it was an amazing way to start of Father's day especially for Jerry this time around. He's an amazing Dad and he works so hard for us and deserved a great day! We went back to my mom's house to make him his favorite home made breakfast. He took a swim in her pool to relax and then we went to see his wonderful Dad (my father as well in so many ways) for a nice BBQ and trip to the movies with his family.

It was a wonderful day, and we're hoping to be able to do this again next year together again.
Will some of you join our team next year??? I really hope so...

I hope you all had a wonderful Father's day as well.

From my corner to yours...Thanks for stopping by!