October | 2012 | Six With Sticks

I’m proud of my girl Eden. She’s had a share of disappointments in sports and school in the last year, especially things that she has set goals for, worked to attain, and not reached. And I know it has gotten her down. I think she constantly compares herself to her older sister who is two years older. It is impossible for Eden to realize how much difference there is in two years; she expects to be able to do everything Liz does.

I’m really proud of her when she picks herself up and takes things on. This morning, she got up around 6:30 and we went for a run. She is training for the Turkey Trot 5k. This morning, we ran 1 mile for speed. She got 9:01, her best time ever. A few more weeks of this, and my girl is going to be ready.

I hope I am able to teach my daughters and sons that they are on the same team. They are never competing against each other. They are always each other’s biggest supporters in life.

Eyes on the prize. Liz set a goal for herself. She wanted to win the 5k on Saturday morning. She didn’t want to run it. She wanted to win it. She asked me to run with her last week to get ready. And when we showed up before the race, she spent a few minutes looking over the trophy table. Eyes on the prize.

When we were getting ready to start the race, Liz pushed her way to the front of the pack, rubbing shoulders with the competitive runners. The gun sounded and she sprinted the first 200 yards to keep up with the lead group.

They’re off!

At 10 years old, she did not ease up the entire run. In the final stretch, she was behind a boy by about 10 yards. I told her to catch him … and she beat him.

She finished 1st place in her age group, 15 and under, and was the 5th female to finish at any age. She took home a trophy. Her time was 25:34, better than any 5k I have run since college.

The prize

She was very excited and said she wants to run more races like this. She received compliments from other runners. All around good day for Liz. Eyes on the prize.