Last weekend the girls both ran in the Bluenose Marathon Youth Run. This was Lilly’s fourth year and Hilary’s second year participating.

Friday afternoon we drove into Halifax to pick up their race kits. This was the first year I wasn’t running at the Bluenose and they were. I kinda wondered if we were silly for doing this just for them and then I snapped out of that thought. Yes, they are with it – the drive to the city, the stress of navigating a race with two kids, the few complaints they may give us as they creep towards fussiness from waiting in line or walking a lot to the start line. It was worth it.

Pretending to run up Citadel Hill

They LOVED the expo!! Free sample foods, pictures taken, seeing Bo from Bo on the Go (TV show), and seemed okay that we didn’t see Myles (Bluenose guy) this time. Navigating a race expo with kids can either be super fun or mayhem, we just went with it. After the expo we got to have dinner with my family and visit with my niece.

We had the girls up at normal time on race day and out the door to get good parking. We arrived way to early and had some unhappy campers but….sometimes it’s worth a good parking spot, right?!?! We met up with our friends and made our way down to the start where we had to walk even further to get into the start area. Lots of walking!

There was a sea of kids. I’m unsure how many participated this year but for every child there was at least 1 parent, if not two it seemed. There were strollers with little ones and all ages dancing to “Sunshine in my pocket”…oh I mean “Can’t Stop the Feeling” as part of the warm up. Hilary didn’t like my dancing….I’m confident my husband didn’t either 😉

Didn’t like my dancing…just kidding, father-daughter pep talk!

Lilly ran with Saï, my friend Krystol ran with her son while I stayed back and ran with Hilary and Braegha, Krystol’s daughter. Both girls were LOVING IT! We ran 90% of the almost 2k distance, stopped once to take off a long sleeved shirt and then once more to catch B’s trucker’s hat blowing away in the wind as we turned the corner to the finish line.

She looks like a bad ass (cause she kinda is) but really she has a mouth full of food. 

We managed to find everyone in the metro centre…yes I still call it that. I think it’s called the Scotiabank centre now but to me it’s the metro centre. The girls had some snacks while we watched the crowds trickle in from the 4k youth run.

After that we went out to lunch and back to my parents place again. Saï and I snuck away for a 15k afternoon run while the girls hung out with their cousin Ava. We then had another family dinner before heading back home later that evening.

It was a whirlwind 24 hour trip to the city but by far so enjoyable, so much fun and really, just a great weekend together. That’s it’s, another great running weekend with my family.

.Anyone take in a race with their kids?

How close to a race do you try to park?

Do you dance/do the warm up at races? (I do 🙂 )