A Family 5k Outing: Awesome fun, turned this mother's worst nightmare.

Meet the Chronics ( my Husband's friend gave us that name and it kinda stuck).



Back Row from the Left: Summer, Me, Joseph
In a row by herself: Kara
Front Row from Left: Andrew, Josiah, Ally



The Idyllic Setting

The Garden of Lights Veterans 5K is an awesome idea! The race starts in the evening and winds through Honor Heights Park, Muskogee, OK. This park is decorated to the nines with Christmas lights and manger scenes. Its absolutely beautiful! We were excited to run this as a family, including our 15 month old, Josiah, in the jogging stroller. The kids were so excited to run with us and now they want to run with us even more, which is cool. Some friends also met us there and some of them ran the course as well.

Joey was running for time. Kara was running with a friend, and Summer is old enough that I felt safe letting her set her own pace. This was mainly because I knew that I would see her a few times during the course, even if she ran faster than me. Ally, Andrew, and of course, Josiah stayed with me. This was so awesome because it allowed me to not worry about time or speed. More importantly, it allowed me to see the beauty of the lights through their eyes. Their amazement affected me in ways I can't explain. Josiah sat quietly in his stroller taking in the sights. I wish I had a mirror or something attached so I could have seen his little face. Andrew and Ally kept up a running commentary: 'Oh look at that tree. Its beautiful!' and 'That blue star is the biggest. It must be Jesus' birthstar.' and my favorite (from Andrew) 'Mom why are the tops of my legs burning?' Hehehe:-)

Sounds like the perfect family holiday outing, right? Wrong...

Where Things go South

The finish line...there it is kids. Take off! Go, Go, GO! I'm right behind you...oh wait. No I'm not because the guy standing by the finish line refuses to let me cross. What?!?!?! It went something like this:
Guy: You can't cross the finish line with a stroller.
Me: Excuse me?
Guy: It will mess up their insurance.
Me, getting peeved: I specifically asked about strollers and was told, no problem.
Guy: You can't cross the finish line with a stroller. You can leave your baby here though like this dad did.
Me: {completely shocked to look down and see a baby in a stroller that I recognized from the race. His momma is going to be ticked at his daddy}
Some Random Woman: I will watch him for you. I have four kids. I will take care of him.
Me: {a more scathing look has never crossed my face} Good for you but I will not leave my baby with strangers. Have you not read the news lately?!?! (Side note: This was the DAY AFTER the Newtown, CT tragedy. My mom emotions were still completely raw and shocked from reading the news all day the day before.)
Guy: You are not crossing the finish line with a stroller.
Me: Fine, at least take my bib number so that I finished the race.
Woman across the line: I'm not taking that.
Guy: Go ahead and take it
Woman: {Rips it out of my hand}
Me: {Losing my cool for real} Look, You can get ticked off all you want but I specifically asked about strollers and was told they were fine.
Woman: Whatever {walks away}
{This is when I realize that the finish line doesn't end there. You have to walk down a little roped off lane. AND I CAN'T SEE ALLY AND ANDREW!!!!!!! There are 1500 runners plus their families. Hundreds of people are milling around and I CAN"T SEE MY KIDS!!!! And I knew Joey was back the other way.}
Me: {Now I've lost it for realsies and I am resisting to the urge to A) Punch someone in the face or B) Run over someone with the stroller.} I have to get to my kids!!!!!! They have already crossed the line!
Guy: Too bad, you can't cross the finish line with a stroller.
Me: {Seriously considering just going across the finish line. I mean what would they do? The only thing that kept me from it was the possibility of them tackling me and Josiah being left alone.} {Oh and by now I am so angry that I am crying because I have no other outlet for my rage...plus I'm terrified about my kids...I have never lost track of one of them in a crowd before. This is literally a nightmare for me. Of Epic Proportions.} You leave me having to choose between leaving my baby with a stranger and losing my 8 and 11 year old in a huge crowd! How can you do this?!?!
Guy: You can't cross the finish line with a stroller.
Me: {turning away and ripping my phone out of my arm band to call Joey} Joey!!!{in hysterics now} They won't let me cross the finish line and Ally and Andrew have already crossed it and I CAN'T SEE THEM!!!!
Joey: Stay right there. I will get them.
{The dad who left his baby, still wasn't back. He crossed the finish line well before I got there. I can only imagine that he had just as much trouble getting back across the finish line to his baby as I had getting across it to my kids.}

This whole episode really only took a few minutes but it was the longest few minutes of my life. Ally and Andrew did exactly what we taught them. They stayed together and stayed put. Joey had them in less than a minute. I had a full scale panic attack. I don't even have panic attacks. We walked the whole way back the van, loaded everybody in. I started driving and still I was shaking. I drove all the way home (and hour and a half) and still I was in full panic attack mode. I had to take sleeping pills just so I could calm down. I still cried most of the night and had nightmares about worst case scenarios. This was, hands down, the worst experience of my parenting life. I looked everywhere, on all the information about the race, and NO WHERE did it say that strollers were not allowed. No where. Not to mention that there were other strollers, some of which had already crossed the finish line. As fun as this run was, as good as the charity is, my family and I will most definitely never run it again. Ever. I can't even type this post without getting sweaty palms and fidgeting.

~KC