Market Square 10K.

A few weeks ago we signed up for a 10km race in New Hampshire. Given how terrible I've been feeling it looked unlikely that I'd be doing it, but this morning I felt fairly fine so we went down to Portsmouth at the crack of dawn prepared to walk most of the course as a family. 

When I went to bed last night, trying to get some good sleep before the big race, Raf looked like a little angel. 

Within minutes, though, he'd changed positions and this morning I woke up to him like this... with me perilously close to falling off the side of the bed and Rich in the spare bed. Of course because we had to get up early Raf didn't stir until minutes before we left, so once he was awake (barely) I got him dressed in bed and we popped him in the car with his breakfast.

This is us before the race. Raf is very, very attached to me at the moment, and if mama is around he wants to be hanging off some body part. I love it, though it is a bit exhausting sometimes as I lump him around. But who can resist this little love bug?

Kisses and hugs for mama.

Making our way to the start area (there were around 2000 runners so it was busy!).

Here's Raf warming up for the race. He did some jumping on the spot and then stretching exercises. Here he is reaching to the sky...

And here is touching his toes (he hasn't quite gotten the part about keeping your legs straight).

Okay, let's get this show on the road.

One quick photo before we're off....

We had such a fun race! I felt really great when running and we managed to finish running sub 10mins miles (just... though the official time is slower because we clearly ran farther than we were meant to, according to my Garmin).

This is Rich and Raf being silly billies with their post race sandwiches.

Cheese!

One final family portrait... in black and white as I'm red as a beetroot in the original photo :)

I didn't stop smiling the entire race, even though I now have a sore achilles and calf (too many hills!) but it was totally worth it. Raf was a little star and loved 'racing'. Rich, who was pushing Raf, got a few comments about being 'super dad', which I did get a little miffed at since I was the one running with poppet on board!!! He loved it!

Afterward we walked around Portsmouth and had a lovely time browsing the market stalls as there was a festival in the town. We bought some lovely little hand made shoes for Poppet and then we stopped in for some lunch at a bar where Raf devoured a big plate of chips (fries) and then left his hummus sandwich. We walked down to see the boats and just as Raf looked as though he was about to lose it, we hopped in the car and drove home.

Lovely, lovely day after a less than stellar week.