The Great Pumpkin Race

This is Bob.  

So, you may recall that last year Carter and I decided to do the Great Pumpkin Race down in Akron.  We had an incredible time and he did quite well trying to keep a pace for the 5k.  He kept saying he didn’t want to race me, so we took it pretty easy. Then when we were in a huge crowd of runners and could see the finish line about 200 meters away he decided to turn on the jets and squeeze between the much bigger people. Needless to say, he didn’t realize who he was messing with. I wasn't about to just let him win after he told me the whole race he didn’t care if he beat me. I was able to finagle my way through and jump across the finish line before him. Later in the day I reminded him that I was proud of him for almost pulling one over on me, but that the day he beats me in a race is the day he deserves to win.  
Fast forward to this year... Landon was excited to join us for the same race. We jumped in the car early in the morning and made it down to Akron around 7:30 in the morning to check in.  Carter tried to tell me he didn’t plan to race us and that he wasn’t worried about who would win. Hahaha

So, when the gun shot off for our group, Landon took off like a bullet. Carter stayed behind him just enough to where he could keep an eye on where he was at. I was trying to conserve energy as I was certain both boys would burn out by the 1 or 2 mile mark. Needless to say, we reached the 2.5 mile mark and they were too far in front of me to see them.  Carter passed Landon at some point and beat him by 45 seconds or so, but they both beat me by over a minute. 🤦🏼‍♂️

I was quite proud of both of them for how hard they ran the entire race, but it was also a reality check for me. I knew the day would come where they would beat me fair and square, but I expected that day would be when they were 13 or 14 years old. Maybe 12. Not when they were 9 and 10.  

It really was a great day.  They both kept saying, “you did really good dad.”  “Im sure you beat the guys in your age bracket”