The new year dawned brisk and cool, not a cloud in the sky or a breeze in the air. Perfect running weather! I assembled my gear, gathered up the husband, the kid (6 years old) and the puppy. We're off!

We make it around the first corner of the parking lot. The kid is complaining that he's tired. The puppy is yanking on the lead, the cart keeps drifting to the right. We stop to rest. After all, we've traveled about twenty yards, we deserve the rest! We make it up to the South-east corner of the parking lot. The kid is ready to ride in the cart. I make him travel on his own two feet at least until we're out of the parking lot. He hangs on my arm, whining the whole way. There are about five people behind us.

Put kid in cart, jog a ways. Puppy runs in front of cart, run over puppy's foot. Water bottle bounces out of cart. Kid is hot and wants to change clothes. We're being passed by everyone.

After ten minutes in cart, I ask kid to get out and walk a ways. He stops to inspect some trash. Puppy and hubby are way out in front of us, getting exasperated. Kid and I walk about five minutes, inspecting bushes, lizard holes and dog poop.

Finally get tired of waiting for kid, put him back into cart. (He's a fast learner!) Off we go, catch up to hubby and dog. Hubby pushes cart for awhile, dog yanks on my arm some more.

Up we go, funny how the uphills seem steeper when you're pushing one of those blasted carts...!

Downhill! I tell kid to get out of cart. He starts crying. I look behind me. There is one walker behind us, a senior citizen. I tell kid he can do better than that. He has no sense of competition, allows senior citizen to pass us like we're standing still. We're scalped.

Back in the cart the kid goes. (You have to understand, this kid is so hyper that he blasts around the house like he's got rockets attached to his feet. We don't understand why he can't walk on his own two feet for 100 yards!) We stop for a snack, some electrolytes, and water. Gotta keep fueled up for this event!

We approach the parking lot, yay! at long last the finish line! I urge kid out of cart, he runs up onto the rolling berm along the road, scrambling up and down, pretending to be a motorcycle. It takes us a full five minutes to travel along the south side of the parking lot. More interesting things to inspect, like fence posts.

Kid is tired now, wants back in cart. I push him until we are just around the corner from the finish line, then urge him out. He runs like a maniac across the finish line, as if he'd run the entire way! Horns tooting and people screaming, aghhhh, nothing like the "finish line high"!

We are last place, finishing time of around one hour. Kid spends rest of day bragging to his friends about how well he did in the marathon.