"Momma, I wanna RUN with you!"

My heart melted a little as those words came out of my daughter's mouth while we headed out the door to get to the race earlier than the 2 dads and the kids. To hear my daughter day that makes it all the more worth it. I am successfully teaching my daughter how important, fun and rewarding exercise can be. She WANTS to exercise with me - and it fills my heart with joy. Unfortunately, today's race was not exactly appropriate for her to accompany me. Sarah, Pascale and I were running our first (and not last, I suspect) Colour Run. A child friendly race, yes, but one I wanted to run with my girlfriends. For as much as she says she doesn't enjoy it, Sarah is a great runner with wonderful long legs that make her stride beautifully long and graceful... not to mention fast. I don't get to run with her often because it is very difficult for her to run at my, errr, pace. Pascale began the C25k after hearing I was planning on coming to Montreal to run this race. She decided it sounded fun and that she wanted to try. She too said she didn't like running; but yesterday, she told me she had changed her mind and now actually ENJOYS it. Although there was absolutely NO peer pressure involved, I still think it is pretty great that she feel like she should thank ME for getting her started. Since the race is very much a fun run (you run through colour stations at every kilometer or so and so in addition to running, there is also a lot of walking, skipping and dancing along the race route. It is NOT timed and most everyone involved has smiles on their faces the whole time. Once the race was over, we celebrated by brigning some colour "bombs" to our kids; who were waiting for us at the end of the race route. Then they were able to throw colour at us as well as at the other racers who were just about to complete their races too. AND, Madie got to run with her momma too. As I arrived to their watching spot, she asked again and I was happy to comply. I took her hand and ran about 400 meters with her; and it was great. This is a race I really plan to repeat - hopefully, as a family event. It was SO.MUCH.FUN. I loved just getting out there, running as much as you could (again, lots of "dodging" involved when there are that many people!) and having fun getting all coloured up along the way and not having to worry about time or pace. It really is freeing to not look at that watch when running.