Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Proud of My Nephews... Again!


Last year, two of my nephews – Patrick and Daniel – ran the Bridge Mile over the Halifax Harbour. This year, they were back again – one year older and wiser and hungrier for glory!

It was all heat and blue skies as we lined up for the kids’ run. The plan was that Patrick was going to run alone this year (with daddy trailing 10m back to make sure all was well) while mommy and I were going to run with Daniel. J-A, nana, and grampy would be waiting on the Dartmouth side with little Micah (a future bridge runner).

Like last year, both boys were a little shy of the starting gun – Patrick has a particular aversion to guns (and later in the day, he loudly let any folks in the Natal Day parade carrying guns know that he disapproved!) – but once the crowd started moving, Patrick sprinted away, looking for the win. Daniel decided to pace things more wisely.

Half a minute in, Daniel decided he wanted to hold daddy’s hand. That effectively destroyed the original plan – time for plan B. Meanwhile, despite his very fast start, we saw Patrick not far ahead, struggling up the hill. Plan B involved me catching up to Patrick and encouraging him the rest of the way. Although he seemed to be flagging when I caught up to him, with just a little encouragement, he found some pace again and powered up the hill. We ran together all the way to the finish, and he even put on a burst of extra speed as he entered the long finishing chute – and he finished faster than last year! It was a great effort.

After we collected his hard-earned and much-prized medal, we went to watch Daniel. Not too long after, we saw him cruising along to the finish holding both mommy’s and daddy’s hands – you can see it in the picture above. It turns out that he ran the entire way without stopping! This was a huge improvement on last year when he was a bit sick and refused to run a single step. As you can imagine, he crossed the line way faster than last year – an amazing effort!!

Both boys did amazingly – and as a reward, we went to the Mother Goose Festival at Alderney, where they got to pan for gold, discover treasure, do some crafts, and jump around like hooligans in a bouncy castle.

After watching me in the Natal Day 6 miler last year, Patrick had decided he wanted to run the 2 miler like some other kids were doing. So this year, Patrick, daddy, and I laced up for the big event. I warned all the runners I knew that Patrick was on the scene and to watch out! We got all the way around the challenging 2-mile loop, and we only stopped to walk at the water table. Patrick did incredibly well – it’s a long way for a 6 year old! And he did 2 races in 2 days – the Natal Day double! And he got two medals to show for it.

I’m sad I don’t have more pictures to share, but my dad was taking the photos at the bridge and if there’s any from the 2-miler, then M-R has them – and everyone’s in Hubbards, while I’m here in Dartmouth. If I can snag a few later in the week, I’ll post them.

All in all, though, the Natal Day weekend was awesome – 2 races for the boys, the Mother Goose Festival, an incredible fireworks display on Sunday night, the parade, and the Pirate event on Monday. Halifax-Dartmouth really does it right for Natal Day weekend.

And – like last year – I was really proud of my nephews. I can’t wait until all 3 can run the bridge!

2 comments:

  1. Hey Doug. You had me running scared...hope your hip feels better soon. J. Menzies

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  2. Hi Jonathan. Thanks so much for the comment. I thought I was still in it after 3k, but you were way too strong over the last 2k. Great run. It was a PB by a second for me -- so thanks for dragging me along!Congratulations on Timex -- very well deserved -- you'll represent the province well. See you at the races.

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