For Your Life

November has been COLD, but this morning reached a new low with the Don having to scrape the car not just at 5:45am when he took Toots to swimming, but again at 8am when he went back to pick her up.  It was this fine morning that saw all our kids decked out in running gear and over the course of the day head to Kellands Park with their class to take part in a Race for Life.  It was also on such a fine morning that their mother volunteered to help marshall, which did not include running gear (side note: Tell the other parents that!!  Just because their kids are involved in a race does not mean they need to be wearing leggings and trainers, I mean seriously?!?  Especially not in those temperatures) nor racing for life, nor even warmth.  My feet were muddy blocks of ice by the time I left at lunchtime - muddy ice that then melted all over the dentist's chair during my check-up.  Ooops.

Anyway, nursery and P1 were running 1km (which was once round the park), P2 and P3 were running 2km, and P4 to P7 were running 5km.  It was far, even for the spectator.

Joey was a star, running the whole way and thoroughly enjoying it - until about 100m from the end when he tripped, fell flat in the mud, and crossed the line crying.  Neither the medal nor the banana appeased him, and there was no chance he'd pose proud for a photo.

Lightning also loved the race, and can't wait to be old enough to join the school running club in P4.

And Toots ran an impressive 5 kilometers in 32 minutes, despite getting a stitch after the first 3km and swimming two hours this morning.  Of course she was nowhere near the mighty OC who powered his way around the course and came flying in first.

As for Tiger... well... lets just say the only times I saw her run was when she was running past me, or running towards her friend's mum - the other ninety per cent of each lap she was merely out for a morning stroll with her chums, nattering away without a care in the world.

Anyway, it was all for a good cause, and we raised £130 which was nae too bad.  We also raced in memory of our papa (Joey), for U.Stan (Toots) who survived, for O.Frieder (Tiger) who's fighting and for [dad's dad] (Lightning) - who we have yet to figure out a proper name for!  In the end I wrote granda, which is what we would have called him had he been alive, but because he never was a granda, or father-in-law for that matter, and we never refer to him as granda, it just seems weird to write it down.  But I couldn't very well write dad's dad(!) so granda it was.