Jacob's First Race and some other stuff

This morning, my nephew Jacob gave us a harmonica concert wake-up call at 6:50 AM. I answered the phone from a dead sleep and was instantly at a concert. He told us he was running the kids race at the Kerry Classic, so after getting my oldest son Nick off to take his ACTs, we headed to Beloit to spectate for a change. Jeff did awesome, as usual, and Jacob did great too. Jeff took first in his age group, 10th overall and Jacob got a cool Tshirt and a blue ribbon, and a hug from Snappy the mascot for the Beloit Snappers, our local minor league team. It was a fun looking race and Mike and I were wishing we had been able to run it ourselves, but then we would likely have missed Jake's big moment so I'm glad we didn't.

When we got home, we took a new run route from our house along the paved bike trail next to the river into Riverside Park. It was a nice route - we got to run alongside the Rock River and saw some cool stuff - the Aqua Jays Waterski team practicing their stunts, some really cool birds, to name a few. Ended up being about 9 miles round trip and was challenging, but still doable.

Later in morning, Lucas consented to go for a spin on his new bike with us. It was cool to do something active together -I think that's the first family ride we have taken since the boys were riding in a kid seat on the back of my bike. It's a shame we took so many years to take it. We had fun, Mike and I took the mt Bikes so we could more easily keep a pace Lucas could keep up with even though we weren't off road at all. We took the Kiwanis trail to Riverside Park that we had run earlier. I think Lucas had fun, I know I had fun riding with him. I wish Nick would come along too next time. Today he was just getting done with the ACT and then he had to go to work.
Tonight we took Jacob a celebratory "great run little guy" prize package. It included lots of messy smelly stuff that should serve as retribution for the wake-up serenade. He got some silly string, smelly bubbles, a whoopie cushion, a playdoh confetti maker, and best of all some gel in a jar stuff that makes fart noises when you play with it - SWEET! A boys dream come true, and lots of stuff that mom and dad probably wouldn't get them (I know I wouldn't have!).

Tomorrow is a big ride, probably to Big Hills Park and a short run maybe with Lucas if he will do it. I will also email someone from the triathlon club and see if I can figure out when they do group workout and where we would fit into their scheme. we seem to be out of the loop as the new guys on the block and need to get with the program.