Briggs & Al's Run

My friends and I (and several thousand other people) ran an 8K race this morning in downtown Milwaukee.  All the proceeds went to the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, which is where Benson stayed when he had pneumonia, and also where I delivered both boys.  It was a good cause.

Here's the BEFORE picture.  That's me under the hat, then Dianne, Katie, and Jenny.  These guys are great running partners!  

And these little running partners were great today too.  (Except for one bout of noncompliance, but it didn't last long.) John was busy in Madison at an ophthalmology conference, and my babysitter fell through at the last minute, so I decided to just push the boys.  Between Dianne, Katie, Jenny and me (and one other random runner who took a turn!), we got these boys across the finish line. 

Just for the record...

-Cole weighs 20 pounds

-Benson weighs 30 pounds

-The stroller weighs 35 pounds

-All our water bottles, warm-up clothes, blanket, toys, snacks, sunglasses, keys, and cell phones weighed about 10 more pounds

TOTAL WEIGHT: 95 pounds

I knew I'd be slower than usual because of the stroller, so here's my shirt I decorated.

(And phew, there were literally tons of people behind us!)

And 50 minutes later... here is our AFTER picture.  WE DID IT!  We didn't win any medals, but feel free to mail us one, since we really did a great job and pushed that heavy load the whole way.

This was actually a very enjoyable race and it was therapeutic for me, since my last race two years ago was a DISASTER!  (That's when I didn't know I was pregnant with Cole and was really sick while running a 1/2 marathon.)  But after today, I once again have a positive image in my mind of how much fun a race can be.  Thanks Katie, Dianne, and Jenny for the rehab!