Pumpkins in the Park 5K

Team 5K in 50 States at the airport headed to Chicago

Jennie writing...

Our trip to Chicago involved  flying 5697 miles, a 5K run, visiting the Shedd Aquarium (in Chicago Bears traffic), visiting the American Girl doll store (in downtown Chicago) all with a 7 year old and an 8 month old in less than 72 hours.  We had a blast!  On the morning of our flight we went to visit the aquarium before we had to head home and getting back to the car after visiting the aquarium involved becoming slightly disoriented and calling Nicole to rescue us with directions, but we all survived AND made it to the airport on time.

 Pre-race breakfast of champions with our cheerleader Aunt Diana and Cousin Danielle

 Hannah at her first ever American Girl Doll store.  Can you tell she LOVED it :)

 Auntie Jennie doing Hanna's hair for the 100th time..gotta love growing out bangs

The pumpkin Hannah decorated at the kids station at the race

Aunt Diana and Cousin Danielle joined us for the Pumpkins in the Park 5K as cheerleaders.  It was nice to have someone to keep Suzie-Q while Hannah and I ran.  This race was very well organized and was super fun, I would recommend it to everyone!  Hannah was able to get in a pre-race run by participating in the kids Spooky Sprints and ran in the 100 yard dash and got  really cool medal to show for it :)

 Hannah during the kids 100 yard dash

 Hannah's medal for the kids race

 

Hannah and Jennie lining up at the 10 minute pace marker...now they can officially start line up at the 9:30 pace marker!

 Team 5K in 50 States ready to race!!!!

As this was a costume race, Hannah and I were dressed as Ladybugs (Suzie-Q too).  While we were warming up for the run, a person in a "freaky pumpkin head" (as Hannah put it) costume was next to us.  Hannah was seriously scared of them and I thought maybe we might have to move just so Hannah would run.  We made sure to be in front of them for the start of the race.  After a good warm up, we were off!  We kept a pretty quick pace throughout the race, and caught a lot of people's attention with our ladybug costumes.  The "freaky pumpkin head" caught up to us towards the end of the race and as the person went by the lady in the costume said "I hope I didn't scare you."  I couldn't believe it when Hannah cheerfully said "you didn't" as we continued to run.  The last half mile was the hardest of this run.  The way the course was designed, you saw the finish line and thought you were done, but still had 3/4 of a mile left to run.  Hannah still had enough power left to sprint the last 100 yards of the race and the announcer was surprised with the "little ladybug."  We finished the race with our fastest time yet of 29:34!!!!  A 9:31 mile pace.  Not bad for a 7 year old who started running 5Ks in August this year. 

 Having some fun on the stairs while waiting to race

Way to go!!! Personal best time of 29:34

I was a little concerned about how they were keeping track of racer's time, and learned that the bibs have a sticky magnetic strip that is the new timing "chip" of the future!  Hannah finished 5th in her age group (females ages 14 & under).  She was 739th out of 1,922 people overall and was 334th out of 1,208 women; amazing! Three states down only 47 left to go.

Tomorrow we will be running our 7th Bonny Sosa race of the season which is our 4th 5K in 10 days!

Pics of Chicago fun!!!