Two kiddos ready to run!
Terrapin’s “Bridge to Brews” race had been on my calendar for a while, and I was looking forward to it, so when suddenly I didn’t have Sunday morning childcare anymore, I signed up my two sons (11 and 9) to run with me. They weren’t exactly prepared, and the younger one really didn’t want to be there, but they were troopers and finished with a 15 minute/mile pace. Here are the 11-year-old’s thoughts about the morning. On Sunday morning, we had to get up at the regular school-day time, because our mom had signed us up to run a race. I had only ever run a 5k, but an 8k isn’t that much farther. At the start area of the race, there were many vendor tents set up with samples, and we each got to have a donut, a cup of root beer at the kids activity tent, and a bottle of a sports drink. There were some other cool things, like a reusable water bottle, but we didn’t want to carry them while running. My brother found a balloon-dragonfly that the balloon artist had made, and he did carry it during the race.
Running across Fremont Bridge
The run was tiring, but fine. We ran some, and when we got tired we walked some. My mom made us all stay together for a while because she wanted a picture of my brother and me on the bridge. After crossing the first bridge, we stopped at an aid station to use the bathroom and get some water, and after that I ran ahead a little bit when my brother wanted to walk. The side streets were blocked off and there were many signs which way to go. Also, with so many people going the same direction, it would be almost impossible to get lost. I finished just a little bit before mom and my brother. We got a drink, but we didn’t get any food because the line was really, really long. Good thing mom keeps snacks in the van for us, or I would have gotten really hungry.
Running across the bridges was awesome. The view of the city was great! We also saw parts of the city that I hadn’t noticed before. People live so much closer together in the apartments downtown than in the small town where we live. It was a great experience, and I had a lot of fun!
From a parent’s point of view, this was a pretty good race to have your kids run with you. It wasn’t too crowded (I never feared I would lose my kids in the sea of people), and even though beer was served, you did not have to stay within a roped off “21 and over” area to consume it. The only downside is the cost: Unlike a few other race organizers, this race did not offer a discount for teenage runners.
