Yesterday the boys' international school had a run-a-thon and my kids amazed me! I was beaming with pride the rest of the day! And I'm so glad my friends shared their pictures so I can blog them.
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The Kick-off Peptalk.
Here's the entire school - I have loved the feel of a small school! |
The run-a-thon is the school's annual fundraiser where proceeds go to a struggling school in India. It also served as the equivalent of "field day" at the end of each school year - or at least that's what it was called when I was a kid. I loved seeing the kids just enjoying a relatively unstructured active day in the sun with their friends.
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| Here's Easton flanked by his best friends - Anthony (of Michigan) & Henrique (from Brasil). |
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Jake surrounded by his fans right before it became too much for him.
Easton and McKay loved showing him off.
The jist of the run was that the kids ask people to sponsor them or contribute a lump sum as they run as many laps around the track as they can in 15 minutes. McKay wore a Superman shirt and said he'd probably run 40 laps. He was raring to go! Easton wasn't sure he even wanted to run and if he did, then maybe 2 laps would be good. I joined each of them when it was their class's turn to run and Morgan did too!
The older students waited with rubber bands to place on each participant's wrist as they passed the halfway mark and 1 lap mark around the track.
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Mighty McKay!
When I asked him about a good scratch on his elbow today,
he said it was from the wind because he ran sooo fast! |
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Superman ran 5 laps only stopping to walk a couple times.
He wanted to keep going when they called the time!
He loved having all that attention as the Superman runner! |
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| Morgan leading as always! |
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Look at that face!
We've got a gal who loves to run! |
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| Easton and his buddies started chanting "Beat the Baby!" |
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| Easton's class at take-off. |
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| I finally got to join Easton on his 4th lap. |
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| Head Mistress Kupke - she ran some laps with each class! Awesome! |
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| Easton with Bella & Anthony. |
My favorite part of the event was catching up to my boys for their final two laps when they were starting to slow down and question themselves. I got to be there for them: run by their side, cheer them on, coach them like my dad did for me ("relax your shoulders", slow to a manageable pace, and set smaller goals like focusing on a closer landmark) . . . and it energized and consumed me! I was so proud that they pushed themselves and wanted me to be a part of it. And Morgan, she ran three laps with McKay's group and two with Easton's non-stop!
When I asked McKay if we should go running together more often he said, "Yeah! And we hafta have rubber bands and balloons at the end too." And a fare dose of cheering well-wishers wouldn't hurt either!
