Silvester Lauf 2009

Today we all ran the Zurich SilvesterLauf. It was a fun run through the city of Zurich. It was seriously cold and snowy but we were up for the challenge! My mom and aunt were in town and they came with us to cheer us on. Aidan was excited because this was his first solo race. The last one he ran with Jason. This time he ran the 1.4K just with a friend. Lainey was so upset last time that she couldn't run, that we signed her up for muki/vaki (mother/child-father/child) race. I knew myself well enough to just run with her, no longer race for me this time! Jason, though, was tough enough to brave the cold and run a 8.6K! Here is Team Barnett, getting our numbers and gearing up for our races! Aidan's was first at 12:20, Lainey and I ran at 1:30, and Jason was at 3:45. Aidan was so happy to run with his friend William.

Here they are ready to start!

Coming in to the finish! They finished in just over 8 minutes. Not bad, guys!

We had a hard time staying warm for the hour between Aidan's race and mine and Lainey's. By the time it started, she wasn't too keen on doing it. She was complaining of being cold and having a sore foot. I made her at least start though. At the start line, she got excited again and began the race strong. About a 1/4 of the way through though, she started crying and wanted to be carried. I figured that was it for her. But no! She rallied! After taking about 2 steps with her in my arms, she changed her mind and said, "put me down, I'm going to run it all, Mommy!". I was SO proud of her! Even with a foot that kind of hurt her, she walked/ran the rest of the course! People along the way were cheering her on and she ate that praise up! Aidan and Jason figured we wouldn't finish, but Lainey didn't give up. She told me she was worried Santa might be watching and so she should do her best. Plus, I kept reminding her of the medal she'd get at the end of the race. She and I finished (finally) in 17 minutes.

Here we are approaching the finish line!

SO proud of her medal!

Jason set off on his 8.6K at 3:45. We didn't watch him start (we were trying to stay warm), but we caught up with him for the last 10 minutes of his race. He did a great job despite below freezing temps and snow!

Here's Jason heading toward the finish line!

Aside from the cold, we had a great day in the city. PatTone cheered us on and I took them to their first Christmas Markt in the Zurich train station while Jason started his race. The kids are so proud of their accomplishments. We are happy to see them getting a feel for competition and physical lifestyle. Hopefully, if we don't learn anything else from our time in Europe, we'll have learned to live a healthier lifestyle.

Team Barnett at the end of race day!