Bridge Fest

A new family tradition was created today when we participated for the second year in a row in the YMCA Bridge Fest. It's a 5K Run/Walk that was started (16 years ago) to commemorate the building of the Lake Houston Parkway Bridge which connects Atascocita and Kingwood. They close one side of the bridge, make the other side a two-way road, and then we can run over the bridge and back to the YMCA in relative safety. I didn't run, however, but walked at my snail's pace... dead last... until I saw the water and then decided that it was enough strain on my stitches and turned around. I let the kids run to actually get on the bridge and then come back. Seth was more interested in playing in the brush on the side of the road that eventually led to the lake's waters. They were happy to be outside, but probably felt kind of cheated this morning and the 5K race didn't really mean much to them.

There are little kid races (much shorter distances) starting at 8:00am, and my three older children would have run in their own age division at different times. BUT we didn't get there until about 9:00am when the 5K started. So... they were all kind of bummed, but had fun running up ahead of me and then back to me, over and over again. While I don't have any cool pictures that I anticipated taking of them on the starting line of each of their races, I was glad that I still took them to participate in the 5K because they seemed to enjoy being outside anyway. The free balloons, bananas, water, bagels, and juices back at the YMCA after the race was a big hit, too.

So why were we late? We even scored a parking pass to park at the YMCA (highly coveted item only given to the first 100 sign ups), but weren't able to use it because you have to get there by 7:30am. I was looking forward to eating free Wendy's chili (they're one of the sponsors) before the race, too. Who is to blame? Why, the controller of the universe, Zoe, of course.

When a new baby comes into your life, it's all about the new baby. If she's hungry, you stop everything and feed her. If she cries, you adjust your schedule. If she wakes up, you stop what you're doing to take care of her. If she poops or spits up, you clean it up. If she wakes up every 15 minutes from 2am to 5am... you deal with it... and cry like a baby yourself when she won't go to sleep. The postpartum depression doesn't help to keep you far from tears, either, and how can you not have postpartum depression with all the hormones receding from your system?

So I had my 3 hours of sleep eventually, but we were late getting to the Bridge Fest. And then, once we got to the Bridge Fest, I had to feed baby in the car before we could actually cross the street and join the crowd. Once we did cross the street, we heard the gun shot and saw the runners taking off in front of us... so we waited for the hard core runners to pass us, and then joined the rest of the strollers near the back of the line. We didn't even start at the starting line, us cheaters... and holy cow, I just realized that I was in such a hurry that I didn't even brush my teeth before we left. Gross!

Count your blessings... if you didn't have to talk to me this morning. We did see a few friends. Some were in the race and some were just out running (crazy people!!). Everyone enjoyed seeing Zoe being the perfect angel... all snug and cozy in her stroller, ASLEEP at last.

So next year, Zoe will be a year old and hopefully will not ruin the perfect day at Bridge Fest where I get to eat goodies before and after the race, get to take pictures of my kids running in the little kid races, and actually get to walk on the bridge at a faster pace without wincing.

You should come, too. It would be fun to walk with other families. Let me know if you want in on this tradition.