My Christmas gift from Gary was a trip to Sunriver this summer for us BOTH to run the 10k at the Pacific Crest Sports Festival. My brother's family came too and we had a great time!
We registered Madelyn for the Kids' Splash Pedal-n-Dash race. We pulled into Sunriver just barely in time - or so we thought! I had done a very poor job of preparing obviously, because I discovered on our way to drop our stuff off at the house that the race started 30 minutes earlier than I had thought,
and I just assumed we'd be able to check in at the starting area, but the check-in was all completed several hours beforehand at another location. OOPS! When we arrived at the starting area I felt some relief that Madelyn's age group was still maybe 15 minutes or more from starting, so at least she didn't miss it. But we had to awkwardly get her bike through crowds to the transition area and, at the advice from one of the volunteers, just had her get in line without her race bib. Thankfully no one kicked her off the course.
Ready to get in line to start her first "triathalon!"
And she's off!
This is the "splash" part - no real swimming.
Next the bike ride - Madelyn is now an expert rider!
And here's where we met another snag - we didn't have a clear plan of action for following or meeting Madelyn at the finish. Gary and I had to walk pretty far back to the parking lot where I hopped on my bike to try and follow Madelyn, and he and August drove to the Village where the kids would finish. But I was so far behind Madelyn, plus had to move pretty slowly around kids racing, and then made the mistake stopping to try and find Madelyn's bike at the next transition to be sure she'd already come through - I began to fear that Madelyn would reach the finish line with no one to greet her.
And that is exactly what happened. When I finally reached the Village I dumped my bike against a tree and frantically searched the throngs of people for my little girl! The finish line volunteers couldn't remember if a girl had come through without a race number, but I knew she had beat me. I was not yet concerned that Madelyn was in real danger; I was confident that I would find her, but my heart was breaking knowing that she might be afraid, and also that I was not there to cheer her across the finish line! After several minutes I finally spotted her wandering and searching the crowd for a familiar face. I ran to her, and she was not crying until I hugged her tight and apologized for not being there sooner. I couldn't help my tears then either.
Madelyn got a very nice medal, and we sheepishly found the kids' race registration table and received her T-shirt and race packet from the confused volunteers. Great work, Madelyn!
