Liz and I ran a 10k in Arbutus on July 4th. We didn’t train for it, and really decided the night before to run it. The race was called the Arbutus Firecracker 10k, and it was the 31st year that this event has taken place.

Liz was unsure the night before if she was going to run it. The deciding factor was a conversation between her and Eden. Eden told her that she should run it for Teresa. Teresa is a little girl who died earlier this week after a failed heart transplant. She went to Hillcrest and our older 3 kids all knew her. Once Eden suggested this, Elizabeth was on board. She would paint tiaras on herself for the race, in honor of Teresa (tiaras for teresa).

In the morning, before the race, Marcia painted the tiaras on Elizabeth. One on her forehead and some on her arms. During the race, the paint was in her face and in her mouth. She was having difficulty breathing, so I told her to wash the paint off. She said, “No. I am running for Teresa. I can’t take it off.” And she kept going.

It was a very tough 6 miles. There were lots of hills. Liz did not stop once to walk. Nor did she complain of tiring. She also kept a strong pace throughout. During the 6th mile, she got ahead of me, pretty far ahead. She never looked back. It was this that made me realize she doesn’t need me.

The problem was, I couldn’t catch her! At the finish, I pushed myself to close the gap. I ended up about 5-10 seconds behind her and 1 runner separating us at the finish line.

My children usually finish before me in races. But I’m usually pushing them at the end to finish strong. In this case, this was the first race where one of my children beat me, and there was nothing I could do about it. I know there is a lot more of this in my future!