Our first family 10K!

Sunday, October 8, 2007

This morning he headed off to the Cap d'Antibes, the famous celebrity vacation destination, to compete in our first family 10K race: "Courrir pour des Fleurs d'Antibes" - translates to "Run for the flowers" and each person crossing the finish line was given a pretty little flower. Before doing so however, there were a lot of preparations, the least of which were the actual training. In France, a medical certificate is required to participate in any sporting event; therefore, both Robert and I had to find a family doctor and get a "physical", along with a letter stating that we were fit to run in the upcoming race! Then of course we had to prepare for Andrew. Since we decided in advance that Daddy was going to push the jogging stroller, and this was the first time we've done such an event, I wanted to make sure that Andrew's bag was well stocked: diapers, wipes, bananas, fruit jars, vegetable jars, Arrowroot cookies, Cheerios, blankets, sweaters, toys...not realizing how much weight I was actually adding to the load. The course was absolutely breathtaking, with the Mediterranean and mountains surrounding us, I was so distracted by the beauty of it all, that the rather hilly course didn't seem too bad. When I crossed the finish line, I found I still had some energy so I started to run the course backwards in search of Daddy and Burbujitas. To my surprise, they were not too far away and from the distance, I could see the smile on Robert's face and hear the crowd cheering away for the "bebe". Andrew slept nearly the whole way, all the while fellow runners and fans cheered him on. I've never seen Robert so proud in my life! When I approached them, I asked Robert if he wanted me to push the stroller to the finish line to give him a break and he said quite succintly, "not a chance - Andrew and I are finishing this thing together"! Despite the total lack of training, the 50 lb diaper bag I threw in the stroller and the steep hills, Robert completed the course in record timing, all thanks to the little Mr. Motivation, fast asleep in the stroller that he was pushing along.
After the race, we went for a long walk along the boardwalk in Juan-Les-Pins, the neighboring city to Antibes, and sat for a while to watch a beach Foot-Volley tournament. Foot-Volley is like Volleyball, but the rules are like soccer. You kick the ball to serve from a mound built up on the beach and only your feet, head and chest may touch the ball. It was quite cool to see how good these guys were.
When we got home, we had a nice breakfast in our back yard and read all of the race brochures to decide which one(s) to register for next!