Heartwalking

Earlier this week, Preston agreed to participate in the American Heart Association's local fundraising 5K with me (walking, not running!). I made sure to disclose up front that it would greatly interfere with his Saturday morning routine (TV and unlimited lego-playing...or is it vice-versa?), and require a decent amount of physical exertion. I was quite surprised that he agreed in the first place, knowing this. I knew it was only a matter of time before he would finally realize the gravity of the situation, but amazingly it did not come until we were actually about half a mile into the walk. Then reality hit. And oh boy, did it hit. First came the whining, (which was excruciating!), which progressed quickly to a full-on physical and emotional melt-down with actual crying, and exclamations like "I didn't ever want to do this!" and "Let's just give all the money back!" (Referring to the donations we had raised.) At one point, he even claimed that he couldn't go any further because his brain hurt. Meanwhile, by the 1 mile mark, we had been surpassed by just about everyone. Of course, the full 5k meant 2 laps around the course, and more than half the people bailed after the first lap. But not us!! Oh no, I wasn't going down like that. Preston has a serious case of negative self-talk for his age, and considering that I have never told him he can't do something I'm still quite perplexed by where it came from, and what the hell I can do to get rid of it. So if I had to carry him on my back the rest of the way, we were going to finish the damn 5k if it killed me. So, with great efforts to distract/motivate/threaten, (and falsely convince him we were on our way back to the car at one point), several snack breaks, and a fair amount of piggyback riding, we somehow managed to complete the full 2 laps. I think there was one person remaining behind us. And they might have been disabled. Anyhoo- here a pics from this triumphant day:

Team Upstate!

Preston's enthusiasm for the kids fun run (once he realized it was not a competition) was actually quite endearing. He needed no encouragement to venture into the mass of children despite that neither of us had any idea what to expect. And he was very attentive to the guy in charge. Wish I had caught a photo of his face as he sprinted by me on the other side of the track! Unfortunately it didn't dawn on me to get myself over there until the last minute so I made it just in time to see him go by. He had a huge grin on his face and not surprisingly, this kid has quite a stride!  

This might be one of the few real smiles ever caught on camera!! He was quite exhilarated upon completion of the fun run. Which is good for a kid who said he "didn't want to race because he knew he couldn't win" the night before.

Completely un-phased by the 1+ miles we walked around the arena getting freebies before the walk even began. 

This was clearly taken within the first 100 yards of the walk. Things went sharply south from here.

Don't think he's actually crying here, but definitely whining. It would have been really terrible for me to take pics of him crying. Right?
Notice we are clearly pulling up the rear here.

Amazingly, he found several bursts of energy near the end of the 5k and was actually running at the end. Go figure. 

Maybe the last ones across?