Not long after we moved to Lisle, Andrew and I fell madly in love with the Morton Arboretum. It is seriously a small little piece of heaven on earth. The first two years we lived here (2006 and 2007), we ran in the arboretum's Fall Color 5K and had a blast. I am so not a runner, but I enjoy doing the occasional 5K (like the Chase Corporate Challenge) here and there. No training is required if you're willing to speed walk and accept the fact that it's going to take close to an hour to finish. Anyway, we skipped the 5K for the past few years due to pregnancy and being too nervous to do the race with an infant/toddler in a stroller, but in 2011, we decided that The Great Sosini was ready to take part in her very first 5K!
First, we had to bundle the poor child up.... The race-time (8am) temperature was around 36 degrees! Sosini's ladybug blanket (made for her by Greatest Aunt Janet) and a winter coat handed down by cousin Charlotte did the trick!
Andrew was worried that Sonia would get bored during the race, but I have taken enough really long walks with her that I knew she loves being carted around like a maharajah and would enjoy herself immensely.
Daddy, is it time to start yet? Why are we lined up way in the back? There's no one behind us!
While we were waiting to start, we ran into some old ND Band friends, Kristin & Gino, who were there with their handsome 4-year-old son, Luke. See, Sonia, cool people line up in the back next to the sign that says "Walkers with Strollers"!
Ready to go....
And we're off!
We were too busy walking (and running-- we actually do a little bit of running during 5Ks, but only on the downhills!) to take too many pictures during the race, but Andrew managed to get this one with his Blackberry's camera while I was pushing Sonia up the last hill of the course:
Sonia did so well! She sucked down a couple of yogurt pouches, ate her breakfast, and looked around at all the beautiful scenery. We heard not one single word of complaint out of our little racer, though we can't say the same about some of the other kids in strollers that we passed. Next year, we're going to sign her up for the kids dash, a 50 yard race that is run right after the 5K. Tune in next fall for some hilarious pictures of that!
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