April 21, we did Pat's Run to benefit the Pat Tillman Foundation. Here is
his biography from their website.
Basically, Pat Tillman went to ASU. In 1997 he lead the Sun Devils to the Rose Bowl (boo Devils!). He went on to play football with the Arizona Cardinals. After 9/11, he signed up for the Army with his brother. He was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in 2004. In 2005, to honor his legacy, they started to do Pat's Run to benefit scholarships in his name. The walk/run starts just outside Sun Devil stadium and ends on the 42 yard line (Pat's number). The race is 4.2 miles long with a 0.42 mile kids race. And it's always held on April 20-something.
My parents have done it for several years, and this year I really wanted to do it. Chris, Ryleigh and I along with my mom and dad, Chris and Cory all did it together. Ryleigh was SO excited that she got to do a kids race! I didn't think about it until it was too late to let her run during the Tinker Bell, and when I went to sign her up, it was already full. She talked all week about how she was going to wear her fast shoes, and run real fast, and people would give her high fives. She woke up the day before the race and comes downstairs and instead of saying "good morning" she says, "is it race day?" When I woke her up on race day, she jumped out of bed and told me I had to find her "fast" shoes!
We met up at Chris's place at 6:30am and rode the light rail over to the race. Wasn't nearly as bad as SOME people thought it would be. We missed the first corral, and Cory missed his corral (he was in corral 3!), but he jumped in with the first one that was being released when we got there. My mom and Topher went to the back with Ryleigh and Chris, my dad and I all jumped in a corral. And then we were off! It was really warm (high 70s) and got warmer by the end of the race (low 80s). I know my performance suffered because of the heat, but I know that's how my body works. After the race, the "runners" met up inside Sun Devil stadium and waited for the "walkers". This is a shot from inside the stadium. You run through the tunnel and into the stadium (that's what the people between the white baricades are doing), and then through the finish line (black sign).
We went back and saw my mom, Topher and Ryleigh on the last part of the course and made sure to give them some high fives! (Ryleigh loves that part!)
Then we met them over by Ryleigh's race.
We weren't sure how the kid's races worked. But we discovered the parents can run with the kids. We all got in the corral with Ryleigh. We just went to the back since it was a fun run.
Here Ryleigh is warming up chasing her stroller.
And here we are waiting for them to release the kids by age group. Ryleigh's so proud of her bib number. And so excited to run in her first race!! I love this picture!
And she finally crossed the start line - and she's off!! She was such a pro!! She's been in so many races (even if she was in the stroller) that she's learned how to dodge and weave to get around all the slow people and strollers. At one point a stroller tried to get on the course right in front of her and she managed to avoid a collision, just kept her head in the game and kept running. We had to jog to catch up at times. It helped having her uncles there to encourage her. We'd keep sending someone to run ahead and get pictures of her, and then she's run to that person.
Keeping an eye out for everyone.
Running to the leader with the camera. See Cory and Chris running to keep up.
Look at at that form!
Didn't even stop running for a drink!
At one point she noticed a bunch of kids start crying and getting scooped up inro their strollers. We knew she was doing fine and could keep going. So here she is running off with Cory and Grampa. Can you tell that they're related?
By the time we got to the tunnel (aka. Bottleneck) we had to slow down and take a walk break before the finish.
Everyone at the finish! What a fun family event!
So proud of my little runner!!! She did great!!! She ran/walked the whole 0.42 miles by herself with encouragement from everyone. More kids races will definitely be in her future :)
