The morning after Halloween, Ella ran her first 5K! It was the Mermaid Run series that is only for girls/women so when a friend told me about it I thought it would be the perfect run to start her out on. She had told me a couple times that she really wanted to do it so I thought it would be fun for the two of us to do it together. I can't tell you how much fun it was!
I told Ella she needed to start running with me to get her some practice and make her aware of how long the race would be. About three weeks before the race she decided she would run the entire 3 miles to get ready (she had only run a max of 1.5 miles prior) so we went down to the reservoir near our house which is basically a big flat square we run around.....the only flat surface in SF!! I really didn't think she would make it but to my complete surprise she ran the entire three miles with out breaking a sweat! Her and Luke both ran it! I was amazed! She was laughing and talking like no big deal and we weren't really running slow at least I don't call 9 1/2 minute miles slow. So I figured she was ready to go!
The race started at 8 but the Marina has major parking issues so Ella and I got up early so we could be there early enough to find parking. We looked pretty cute in our matching outfits we bought for the special occasion! It was so fun walking around with her waiting for the race to start. She was so mature and grown up.
She was nervous for the race to start but she just followed me through the pack and we took off when we crossed the line. We got into a really nice pace once we got through the crowd. The race trail was right along the ocean down by Golden Gate bridge so we had beautiful scenery. She was so brave and determined to finish on time. When we got to some of the water stations, I asked her if she wanted to stop and get water but she didn't want to stop. She just kept running! When we got to the last half mile I told her we should step it up a bit to finish strong and she definitely did! It was so fun to cross the finish line with her! As we got closer to the line a lady called out to us saying "way to go Twins! You got it!" And then when we actually crossed the line they called out Ella Burdine and Marie Burdine from San Francisco....that made her smile! She was very tired afterwards and said she felt a bit sick but that quickly wore off once we checked our times and she realized she beat me by a second! She ran it at 9:58 minute/mile. I was sooooooooooooo proud of her! I can't tell you how fun that was to see her push herself to accomplish her goal! It was amazing and truly my proudest moment. We are both dying to do more races together soon.....Luke is too now:)
Here she is with one of her good friends Maryjane who also ran the race with her mom.
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