Running Alongside

On Sunday morning I got up much too early for that day of the week (although it's getting to be a season when that happens some). I left my house by 6:15 in order to join others from my school for our local Girls on the Run 5K race.

One of my former students (the little darling on the left in the picture below) asked that I be her buddy runner. I couldn't say no. 

It took me more than two hours to get to the race location, due to the insane number of people going there. (The bus driver taking most of the folks from my school is rumored to have said, "The power of women can stop the world...and 66.) The race was delayed more than half an hour in order to allow people to arrive. (That was lucky for me because I got there about 10 minutes after the scheduled start.)

Unfortunately, the little one on the right was left without a buddy runner as her's did not arrive in time. She joined us and thank goodness she did! She's a fabulous runner and kept us moving. I don't know her well but she is in Girl Scouts with my daughter so I am familiar with her.

She's about as sweet as possible and pretty quiet. I'm sure my original buddy and I were holding her back through most of the race but she just kept turning back to us, smiling, and waving her hand to tell us to 'come on!'. I wish I had a picture of that.

Seeing kids outside of school is always a joy. Sometimes you see an entirely new side of them. Other times, as was true with these two, they are just the way you would expect, if possibly a little more relaxed and loose. I never regret the time I spend with kids in different settings.