Light a Fire Under Your Butt New Year's Giveaway and Raffle!

I hope everyone had a great holiday season! Now that we're all looking to 2012 and planning bigger and better things it's time to start the New Year off right! And to do that I'm doing the biggest giveaway yet!

To start off you may remember my review of GoSportID. This is an awesome start up company and a wonderful product! I'm rocking my purple band today! You can check out their products here! GoSportID was kind enough to donate TWO $25 gift cards to our giveaway! So enter to win and start picking your personalized inscription!



Next up is every runners dream for carrying necessities like a phone, keys, ID, or gels. If you don't know SPIbelt, you should! I wore a pink SPIbelt for my 50 miler and I was so impressed I got another one for my husband (look for a full review coming soon!). SPIbelt was generous enough to donate TWO SPIbelts, a red and a blue! Believe me when I say you NEED one of these! They don't bounce or chafe and they carry a TON of stuff!



For the ladies, I had to get something special! Who doesn't love to be stylish on the run?! BIC Bands blew me out of the water by donating a DOZEN of their newest sparkle bands! If you haven't tried these out yet you won't be disappointed! They stay put, look amazing, and part every purchase is given back to charity! You can check out which charity they are working with this month by following them on FaceBook or on Twitter using @BICBands! The packages of BIC Bands will include Minnie Sparkle Apple Green, Minnie Sparkle Blue, Minnie Sparkle Fuschia, Minnie Sparkle Peacock, Minnie Sparkle Petal Pink, Skinny Sparkle Apple Green, Skinny Sparkle Aqua, Skinny Sparkle Black, Skinny Sparkle Gunmetal, Skinny Sparkle Orange, Skinny Sparkle Petal Pink, and Skinny Sparkle White! Check out the amazing color, Peacock, below!



Now, for all you race junkies I have something totally mind blowing! I have been in love with Allied Medal Hangers for a long time now. In fact my husband just bought me number 4 for Christmas! Allied's hangers are laser cut from stainless steel and they are STURDY. Between my husband, older daughter, and I we have crammed medals onto these until we can't fit anymore and they don't bend or sag under the weight! They hold a huge amount of medals too! You have got to check out all the photos on their FaceBook page! The one I just got for Christmas is below followed by a (really bad) picture of our other three! The winner of the medal hanger will get their choice so go drool now!





Last but not least I have a product I've been dying to try out, the Wind X-treme. You can use the WDX like a cap, headband, scarf, balaclava, mask, wristband, or a million other ways! Disclaimer: This product was not donated! I purchased it for the purpose of this giveaway and I haven't even tried mine out yet but it looks awesome!



So now you're wondering how you get a chance to get your hands on all this great stuff right?! Well here's your answer! To comply with regulations I can't *require* you to pay anything to enter so here's how I'm going to skirt the issue!

Ways to enter without purchase! Leave a comment for each one:
- Follow my blog or tell me if you already do*
- Follow or like each of the awesome product sites above on Twitter and/or FaceBook and leave a comment for each one*
- Post this giveaway on FaceBook, DailyMile, Twitter and/or any other social media site and leave a comment telling me where*

*To make this a little harder there is only ONE free entry per person. After that you can add one free entry for each dollar you donate!

How to get all the entries you want!
- Donate to my IAFF Burn Fund page.
- Donate $50 or more up until midnight January 31, 2012 and earn DOUBLE entries (multiple donations over the period will be added together).
-If you already donated leave me a comment telling me so I can match up your donation with your entries!

*For every dollar you donate you get one entry. And for every dollar you donate you can also do one more of the free entries so you build your chances!

Entries will close January 31 at midnight. I will draw winners using Random.org on February 1. Good luck!

Thank you so much for helping me remember my father in a tangible way!

If you would be interested in donating a product for future giveaways and/or fundraising please email me at sbrunazzi (at) gmail.com!

Nutrition for Runners

I recently had a conversation with a runner who is coming back from a stress fracture. The conversation really got to me when another runner stated that supplements are useless and users are just wasting their money. I can't help but believe that supplements are an important part of an athlete's diet and I'll explain why.

Today I woke up and hit the snooze button on my alarm. Once I actually dragged myself out of bed I was in serious danger of being late for work. I threw together an outfit and a lunch. Then I grabbed a granola bar as breakfast as I headed out the door. A stop at Starbucks rounded out the 'most important meal of the day' for me. Around 10:30 I started to feel hungry so I had some tuna on crackers and then I went to the gym and did what I do best. I ran! Afterwards, I had a bowl of cottage cheese at my desk. Later in the afternoon I had a banana. Dinner consisted of chinese food since I was late. Thankfully, I take my multivitamin and a few supplements consistently and the last round of blood work I had done showed I was lacking in nothing but iron. (Thanks blood loss!) I am a firm believer in a daily vitamin on top of a generally healthy diet!

If you are anything like me, and I dare you to say that you don't commit these same crimes against nutrition, then you are going to be missing something (or several somethings) from your diet. And when athletes are missing key nutrients or vitamins bad things happen, like my fellow runner's stress fracture. Sure fresh is best and nature beats man-made and all that but, unless you are extremely disciplined and monitor everything you put in your mouth, a supplement is your safeguard!

That's why I'm pleased to be able to introduce Centrum's line of ProNutrients. ProNutrients is a line of dietary supplements formulated to work with your multivitamin. Centrum also introduced a new line of multivitamins to meet specific needs. You can choose from Prenatal, Vision, Energy, or Heart blends.



The ProNutrients line includes Omega-3, Probiotic, and Fruit & Veggie. Omega-3 provides vital EPA and DHA in a smaller-than-average and easy to swallow pill. Fruit & Veggie blends grapes, blueberries, raspberries, plums, carrots, and tomatoes to support cell protection with antioxidents. The Probiotic blend contains healthy, active bacteria to support digestion and immune health. With the right knowledge and support anything, especially nutrition, is possible!



To get started with the Centrum line print off the $5 coupon at ProNutrient's FaceBook page. Or you can just post a comment telling me your thoughts on your nutrition and what you're missing for a chance to win the ProNutrient product of your choice. I'll pick a winner on January 14. Complete giveaway rules can be found here.

To enter simply do the following and leave a comment for each one you complete:
-Follow my blog
-Tell me something you're missing in your diet
-Follow Centrum on FaceBook
-Follow me on Twitter (@warriorprncss3)
-Post this giveaway on your social media sites using #NutritionPossible

Alright, have fun and stay healthy! Good luck!

Disclosure: I am participating in a Centrum ProNutrients campaign hosted by One2One Network. I received nutritional product and compensation. While all opinions stated are my own, I make no claims about Centrum ProNutrients as a product or it's effectiveness.

Motivation, or the Lack Thereof

The holidays are in high gear and so is all the craziness that goes with them. I’ve been doing really well the past four weeks in training for the Umstead 100 Mile Endurance Run. I haven’t skipped a run or even a single mile. Now, in week five, I’m facing a sudden mountain of doubts and a loss of motivation. It’s not easy to keep up with being a wife, mother, employee, student, and runner (blogging isn’t a chore so I won’t list it!). I’m fighting to write and mail cards, find the perfect last minute gifts to round out my shopping, bake some goodies, and our tree is still only half decorated. The bottom half at that because that’s all the higher my daughter could reach. Yes, I made my kid decorate so I didn’t have to!



I pushed through the first two days of this week and went to the gym despite not feeling any desire to do so. Today I realized I hadn’t gotten my coworkers anything and I felt guilty. So I skipped my lunch run and bought a pack of cards and some lottery tickets. I spent the remainder of my time filling them out and putting them in envelopes. I’m sure my coworkers are happy, at least one got a winner so far, but I’m angry and disappointed with myself. What a cop out! I could have bought cards and lottery tickets on the way home and done that tonight with a glass of wine while the kids slept. Now I’ll be trying to motivate myself to hit the treadmill instead.



I love running for a lot of reasons and the feeling of accomplishment after a run is not the least of them. So why am I so unmotivated? I’m not sure. Perhaps it’s the sense of impending failure. I’ve already attempted one hundred miles once and failed so why should this time be different? I’ve never failed at any other distance. I’ve always succeeded on the first try even if it wasn’t pretty. Maybe it’s the fact that I’m sacrificing forming relationships over lunch with coworkers to hit the gym instead. It’s also entirely possible that I’m really good at sabotaging myself for no good reason.



I’ve got 14 weeks left (and 4 days, but who’s counting?) to get my body and mind ready to run 100 miles. I know I need to put in the training. I’ve punished myself by running marathons and ultras under-trained. I know I can’t make 100 miles on my current fitness level. I also know that I want that buckle more than any other medal or trophy in my growing collection. It’s not about winning, it’s not about beating anyone except myself.

So I’m going to get out of my own head and just do it. I’m putting it out there now. Unless I am injured or VERY sick I will not miss a mile. I might rearrange the days within a week to meet situations that arise (switching long runs from Saturday to Sunday has happened twice already) but I won’t sabotage my chances just because ‘I don’t feel like it today’. I know tomorrow it will be easier to skip if I start today and the only runs I will regret are the ones I didn’t do.

If you don’t see a post from me tonight with 5 miles DONE please come track me down and drag me kicking and screaming out the door. Words of encouragement, words of eternal damnation in runners’ purgatory, whatever you’ve got for me, just throw them out there! I need every bit of help I can get!

Goodbyes

I'm almost to the end of my 26th year of life. It's been a great year for the most part. I celebrated my one year wedding anniversary, I have run 32 races, I have seen my babies grow to 6 and 1 years old, and I have made a ton of new friends both at my new job and outside of it. I've also been given an extraordinary amount of opportunities. I ran half of 2011 for Team reGen and enjoyed every moment of it! Now I have been offered FitFluential ambassadorship and a Nike wear testing position. A girl could not ask for more!

However, there is always the downside. 'Friends' who don't understand my running, blogging, and busy lifestyle have drifted away. I don't mind the gradual distancing so much. Sometimes it's easier that way. What I do mind is the people who have become downright ignorant, even rude, in the way they approach me. I'm realizing that even though I post exactly what I'm doing, thinking, feeling, that people don't react equally.



Some people seem to regard me as some kind of super-athlete. This is confusing to me because I post about my training and how slow I am. My mileage is extremely low compared to most ultra runners and that explains why I'm a mid-pack finisher at best. I don't mind these friends because I hope that I encourage them to push their boundaries the way my idols have encouraged me.

A few people have been less pleasant in their reactions. They have become snarky or begun to give me the cold shoulder as if I am somehow beneath them. People who used to text me just to say hello stopped responding to any form of communication. Friends who used to join me for a 20 mile run in the woods stopped inviting me at all. I don't get a 'Happy Holidays' post on FaceBook or an invite to events. And at first, it bothered me.

Then I realized something. My time is valuable. I am valuable. I don't have to be treated that way and I don't have to keep going back for more. There's a reason FaceBook and Twitter have the means to unfriend or unfollow. There's a reason you can block phone numbers and emails. I don't have to read their pages and comments.



This epiphany set me free. I stopped wasting my time waiting for these people to realize I'm still the same person. If they feel I've changed for the worse they had a responsibility as a friend to say so in a kind way. Their choice not to communicate their feelings belies their claims of friendship and proves them unworthy of my consideration.

I am lucky. Total strangers have helped me in times of need. Friends that I've barely seen since highschool have wished me health and happiness for holidays, birthdays, and no reason other than to say hello. Thanks to the generosity of family and friends and teammates I've never met I have been able to raise $410 for the IAFF Burn Fund in only 5 days.

For 2012, my 27th year, I am grateful for the true friendships I've formed. I'm thankful for the faith and generosity of total strangers. I am truly blessed to have family that will let me run for 2-5 hours every weekend to get ready for a race that will take me away from home for an entire weekend. I'm thankful for total strangers who have offered me training advice and offered to come to the race and pace me without ever having met me. Lastly, I am thankful for the friends that I have yet to meet. I know they will be some of the best yet if the past year has been any kind of taste of what's to come!

What will you do with your 2012? Will you continue to let people tell you what your limits are? Or will you go out and find them yourself? I wish you health, happiness, and true friendship in the year ahead!

Forged By Fire

I've got a huge announcement! I've partnered with the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) to raise money for their burn fund. The fund uses donations to provide education, awarness, advocacy, burn research and to improve the quality of life for burn survivors. They sponsor an annual Burn Camp in Washington, D.C. to bring together youth affected by burns and help them return to a normal life.

You might be wondering why this matters so much to me. Let me just preface this with a warning. Be prepared to cry if you read on. I will certainly be crying as I type. These are painful memories but ones that may serve to save many lives, maybe even the life of someone you love. So if you want to stop reading now please take a moment to visit my donation page. Even $1 helps! And please stop back in a few days because that small donation could net you some BIG prizes! I can't say anything for certain yet but I'm putting together a very nice package of prizes for a few lucky winners who make a donation.

Now on to the tough stuff....

When I was about two years old I climbed onto my grandmother's kitchen table while she was making breakfast. I was wearing my footed pajamas and happily awaiting breakfast. What I didn't expect was the pot of boiling hot coffee on the table. It poured down my leg, melting my pajamas to my skin. I don't remember much about the ordeal except for the sickening pain and terror. I know the ambulance was called and I remember that they couldn't get a stretcher through the narrow hallway to the kitchen. Instead they passed a backboard through the kitchen window and then slid it back out to the ambulance with me attached. The actual details are vague and fuzzy but I can never forget the searing pain and the fear that gripped me. It almost makes what came next worse because I have had a small taste of that unimaginable pain and I can not fathom what severe burn victims suffer through. But before I get any further let me introduce you to the hero of my story.

My father's name is Michael. He was born on March 17, 1956. My father was the epitome of class clowns. His Donald Duck impression was dead on! Despite his biker facade with tattoos and an unkempt beard he was fun-loving and helpful. I spent many weekends at my father's side helping a neighbor with yard work or fixing a dirt bike at the track. I can still remember how much I loved to ride in my daddy's big blue truck. It was a stick shift and I thought it was the greatest thing in the world when it backfired!

Before my parents had me they worked together as volunteer firefighters and EMT's. My daddy served Hampton Township VFD #1 from 1977-1981. In 1981 my father joined the Army and served as a Fireman at Fort Ritchie in Maryland. In 1984 I came along and ruined all the fun and my parents settled down in Pittsburgh to raise their family.


My father in his Army photo

In the early 90's my father fell on hard times. He took a job at a rendering plant to make ends meet. This rendering plant had a spotty history with OSHA and no regard for their employees' safety. My father hadn't been working there very long when misfortune struck. On February 17, 1996 he slipped on the rendered fat and oil covering the floor and landed in a scalding pit of water and animal fat. My father was stoic as ever and pulled himself to safety. He somehow made his way to the shower room and undressed. It must have been excruciating! The first responders found him there curled into a ball under the running water with second and third degree burns over 75% of his body. All of his skin from his neck to his feet was blistering and peeling off.

My father was taken to Mercy Hospital where he spent the next 56 days. I will never forget my mother telling me that daddy was hurt and taking me to get him a get well card. I felt so sure my daddy would be okay. He was too strong not to be! At first the hospital scared me. The beeping machines and glaring lights adding to my state of distress. I grew less afraid of the hospital over time as it became the place where I spent most of my time. Friendly nurses and staff brought my sister and I puzzles, coloring books, and games. We decorated my father's room with cards and pictures and notes from friends around the world.


My father's VFD badge

When my father's immune system couldn't fight anymore he developed infections that ravaged his body. His beautiful brown eyes, exactly the same shade as my own, turned a brilliant and terrifying blue. His heart had to work overtime and started to fail. The doctors thought amputating a leg, or both, might help since that's where the infection was taking hold. When I saw my father with a flat spot under the blanket where his legs used to lie I was scared. But I also had visions of pushing him in a wheelchair, sitting in his lap, and maybe even racing him on my bike. My daddy HAD to be okay now!

The infection wasn't giving up though. For my father's 40th birthday we were blessed with more bad news. His heart was being damaged by the strain. My father went into cardiac arrest several times but he always fought and came back to us. I would light a candle every night and pray harder than any 11 year old should have to. I promised God I would become a nun or whatever he wanted if he would just heal my daddy. I would stand by my father and tell him about my day as calmly as I could. I didn't want him to hear the terror in my voice as my burly father wasted away in front of me. I'll never forget that, even in his drug-induced 'coma', he would still squeeze my hand when I told him I loved him.


My daddy and I

On April 12, 1996 my sister and I told our father we loved him for the last time. My family made the horrifying decision to end my daddy's suffering. That night doctors removed the ventilator and my sister and I sat in shocked silence while we waited for the confirmation that it was finally over. I'll never forget the faces of my family when they came back into the waiting room for us. No one should EVER have to watch their loved one die. I would give my own soul to erase the grief I saw on the faces of everyone I love that day. It is etched into my memory and I never knew what to do about it... until now.

When I ran the Savannah Marathon I was introduced to the American Cancer Society (ACS). At first I decided to run the Rock n Roll D.C. Marathon for them. Until something clicked in my brain, March 17, 2011. My father's 55th birthday. I decided then and there that ACS would have to wait. This race was going to be special! I started researching and contacted the IAFF. They were more than helpful in helping me get a fundraising page set up and I've got a uniform to run in on its way to me right now!

Having run two marathons and several ultras I understand pain. I even seek it. I understand mental toughness and enduring when it seems impossible. But I will never suffer like some of the IAFF's best. I saw a shirt on an ultra runner that read 'meaningless suffering without a point'. That may be the case for most races but not this time! This time my suffering is going to benefit a family that's facing long stays in the hospital, lost income, painful choices, and children that are losing their innocence way too young! I am going to make a difference for someone that I don't even know but that I am bonded to by shared grief and loss.

Maybe everything I went through myself had a purpose. Maybe I am a 'crazy' ultrarunner because of the things I endured and survived! Maybe, just maybe, a soul can be forged by fire and come out stronger!

So please, if you have a dollar to spare, donate. I promise you that even the smallest donation will change lives! If you made it this far, thank you! I'm forever grateful for you, my friends that live in my computer!

XOXO,
Sara Brunazzi and the IAFF

Double Dip is Quite the Treat!

If you haven't realized we're a little crazy around here by now then you must be new (so welcome!). On that note, my husband decided he was ready for his first 'double dip', that is 2 races in 2 days. We signed up for the Cold Man's 5k in Oil City on 12/3 and the Trot for Tots in Oakdale on 12/4.

I have been training pretty hard so I didn't expect too much. You're probably thinking that doesn't make sense but, yes, it does. I feel like I'm walking a very thin line between training hard and over-training. I was hoping to PR, maybe get my sub-25 goal, and I had a vague hope that I could take third overall if I had a really great run (based on the last years results). I was pretty sure my husband had a better shot than I did at all of those things though!

I guess Christmas miracles do happen because we showed up at the Cold Man and I saw right away that there were few women who had that 'hungry' look most of the winners have. I saw quite a few young teens wearing highschool track gear so I figured they would probably crush me. I talked to one of them while I was waiting at the start line and she said she hadn't been running much since the last track season. I felt a vague hope come back then. My husband wasn't so lucky and the local super-runner showed up at the last minute.

Right around this time is when we were bombarded by Mr. Know-It-All. I guess these guys are everywhere. They've run 5 half marathons this year and lost 80 pounds in the last two years so they must have a corner on the running market right? This guy bugged my husband and I (and everyone around us) about our training methods, our mileage, our recent injuries, and everything else under the sun and then tried to tell us what we were doing wrong. I very calmly warned my husband that if he didn't beat Mr. Know-It-All by a large margin I would happily beat him with a stick for subjecting me to this torture on a Saturday morning.



Mercifully the race director began a speech about not getting shot on the wooded trail (thanks hunters with no common sense) and avoiding direct collisions with the returning faster runners. I listened with half an ear as Mr. Know-It-All gave his input on each point ("Take off your reindeer antlers now!" *giggle giggle*). I guess I had good motivation from my urge to get far away from him. The race director shouted go and I took off like a bullet... for about .2 seconds.

The people who lined up at the very front? All walkers. Sigh. I dashed up a grassy hillside and ran along as best I could until I was past them all. Upon returning to the trail there was one of the young track girls in front of me. I decided I would just try to stick to her and maybe, just maybe, I could take second or third afterall. Imagine my surprise when, maybe a half mile out, she suddenly grabbed her side and came to a dead stop! I'm never happy about another runners pain but I'm pretty sure she just went out too fast and got a side stitch so I gladly passed her.



But then I realized, to my horror, that I was first woman! This early on it had to be a mistake! I began to worry if I was going to have a marvelous and awe-inspiring blow up that would leave me walking the last mile. Right about this time Mr. Know-It-All passed me. That was the motivation I needed right there. He'd already told me he averages a 23 minute 5k so I knew I wasn't going to beat him but I sure as heck wasn't letting him annhilate me either! I latched on to a group consisting of Mr. Know-It-All, a man running with two little boys (YES! See my post on Running with Kids!), and a few other men.

The man who appeared to be the father of the younger boys seemed to be struck by a side stitch as well. He suddenly pulled off to the side and yelled for the boys to continue without him. Those little boys KILLED it, super fast! As we approached the turnaround I saw my husband and he told me there was no one for at least 100 feet behind me. I was losing the group but I told myself I could hold it together for the last half. The volunteer at the turnaround shouted 11:57 as I skidded around the cone and then he said, "You're the first woman." I almost died right there as all the doubts crowded back in again.

I heard footsteps behind me as I neared the two mile mark and a man pounded past me. I breathed a sigh of relief as soon as I saw it wasn't a woman but I started to really freak out because I was losing it by this point. I should have been easily making my sub-25 goal but the third mile seemed to take FOREVER! My legs felt like lead, my lungs were dry, and my throat was on fire. I couldn't escape the feeling of panic that told me the second woman would be creeping up on me any second. I didn't like the feeling of having a huge target on my back!



As mile 3 came to a close I knew I had it if I just pushed. I risked a glance back and the second woman was about 30 seconds behind me. My husband was yelling at me from the finish line and the clock was nearing 25 minutes with every tick. I wanted to cry as I watched it tick past that mark I've been working so hard to break! My official time was 25:10. To be fair, I can't complain, it's still a 22 second PR and I got my first overall award out of it!




My husband wasn't quite so lucky. He missed a PR by about 10 seconds and ended up 9th overall. He did get first in his age group though and he beat Mr. Know-It-All so I didn't have to whip him when we got home!

Overall I'm surprised how it feels to win. It's a little bit hollow. There was no real competition, no last minute sprint to the finish. I don't feel like I really 'earned' this win. Maybe it's just the super-competitive side of me but it honestly just doesn't feel real. I showed my trophy to my mom and then tucked it onto the shelf in the basement and went for a 9 mile run to process what had just happened.

It actually felt a little bit 'better' to lose on Sunday at the Trot for Tots. I was sore and stiff and exhausted after my 12.1 miles the previous day. I went out at 'normal' pace for a 5k and just did my best to maintain. My competitive drive even kicked up a bit at the end and I tried to out-sprint a woman at the end. It didn't work with my dead legs but I tried anyway! And the trying, the really working to beat myself and someone better than me, felt good! Really good! I finished just under 27 minutes and 11th in my age group, a pretty 'slow' time for me now but something I never would have imagined doing a year ago.



All in all, it was a great weekend! And as cliche as it sounds, I'm really glad I finally understand that it's not about 'winning' so much as trying make myself better than I was yesterday. The joy is not in beating everyone else. It really is about beating myself. Whoever would've thought running would make me wax philosophical? Maybe I'm getting soft in my old age!

Running with Kids

I know there's a lot of moms (and dads) out there that struggle with sacrificing Saturday morning cartoon time with their little ones to run a race instead. I've been in the same boat (almost every weekend lately). It's not easy to remove the parental guilt we associate with putting ourselves 'first'.

That's why I got my older daughter into running. She expressed an interest so we took full advantage of it. I helped to organize a race in April 2011 and it was almost literally outside our back door. My father-in-law and I volunteered at an aid station while my mother-in-law, husband, daughters (the baby in the jogging stroller), and a family friend ran the race.

We didn't do any specific training for my older daughter, who had just turned 6. Our several-times-weekly walks were usually walk/runs with her anyway. Many times she runs ahead (on the trail) to the next road crossing and stops and waits for me to catch up. We walk more than 3 miles fairly often as it's about 1.5 miles to the park and back and we usually go beyond the park to a nature preserve further down the trail.


The family that runs together, Stays together?

I never even thought about 'training' my daughter but I didn't have any concerns about her participation either. Suddenly I'm surrounded by running parents who wonder if they should or could let their young children participate. Runner's World magazine even did an article in their September 2011 edition on this topic and recommended that children 6 and under not participate in races. (7-9 is okay for 5k's and 10+ is okay for 10k's according to the article.)

I started to wonder if I was harming my daughter. Was I being the pushy parent? Was I damaging her growing body? Why SHOULDN'T she run(/walk) a 5k if she so desired? Would it be wrong to let the baby do a 5k earlier (maybe 4 or 5) if she wants to? So many questions and so few answers!

Parenting is so individual and there's so many ideas on how to do it 'right' that I decided to trust myself and my husband. If we think our children are capable and they believe they are too then why not let them try? I'm thankful to report that it's working out well for us.

Gem has her own medal hanger full of age group awards and soccer medals. She set a new 5k PR of 39:00 at her last race. The baby even has a medal because we registered her at one race just for kicks even though she was in the jogging stroller the whole time. My older daughter is now asking if I will let her do a longer race and I told her we would talk about it come spring.


Those are all Gems on the pink hanger!

So what's your take on running with your kids? Is it good? bad? neutral? What age is a good age to start and do you worry about 'training' your children? At what age would you let your child run farther (5M, 10k, HM)?