Last Sunday, we did the Make Tracks at the Zoo again together as a family. The St. Louis zoo has this race once a year and this is our fourth year racing it as a family. I will admit, we had A LOT going on this last weekend and when the alarm clock went off… I just wanted to ignore it and go back to sleep. Getting up for a 7:30 a.m. race is A LOT when it is just ME, but we had to get the kids ready and go to my parents house so they could follow us to the zoo. Once I was up and ready, I was glad I missed out on the extra sleep, because we had a lot of fun!!!
When we arrived at the zoo, we found another St. Louis Birthday Cake! I have lost count of how many I have seen, but they are always a nice surprise!
Nathan loves running and even ran cross country last Fall in school. However, this year even Miss Autumn was REALLY excited about getting to run! I think last year, she still wasn’t sure what it was all about… but, this year she got it. 🙂
Cheerleaders by the start line
Here I am with Brian by the start line… Brian is such a good husband, he always goes along with me to all of my races and even sometimes runs them with me. It was funny, because Autumn’s teacher was at this race and she saw Brian during the race! She told him, ‘You can’t let Autumn’s teacher beat you!’ during the race… ha! So, of course Brian finished the 5k at his best time yet this year!! Yeah, Brian!! Autumn loved seeing her teacher before and after the race!
Here is a photo my Mom took of me after the race. I did not PR (my best 5k time is 27:00), but I did PR for this race, which was awesome… especially since I think this is one of the harder 5k’s that I do!
Results:
Chip Time: 27:45 (I finished at 29:59 last year, so I knocked over 2 minutes off my time!)
Chip Pace: 8:56 min./mi.
Age Group (35-39): 17 out of 190
Female: 122 out of 1,212
Overall: 316 out of 1,826
When I look back at my post from last year, a 27 minute 5k time was my goal for this race and I finally hit it this year! Yes! My next PR goal is to get under 27 minutes, I almost did that last Fall with a 27:00 5k race finish time.
Here is one of me with the kids after I ran, I posted this one on Instagram (follow me on Instagram HERE)
Next it was time for Nathan’s race… he got to run a 1/2 mile this year, since he is 8! Here is Autumn watching out for Nathan!
Nathan running with Brian… Nathan finished in the top 1/3 of the race, from what they told him when he finished. Yay, Nathan!
Then, it was time for Autumn’s 1/4 mile race! This girl CAN RUN, oh my I had trouble keeping up with her in-between all of the little ones! 
My Mom took a bunch of photos of us running, this one is of me running behind Autumn… you can’t see Autumn, but I am rocking the side pony! Only time I can get away with childish hair-do’s like piggy’s and side-pony’s is during races!
I love how Autumn ran with her stuffed animal… there were several in age group that ran with them. 🙂 aww. I am proud to say she ran the entire 1/4 mile this year!
She was SO proud of her finishing ribbon!
Of course, Mommy had to take a ton of finished pictures after their races!
It was such a fun day (yet tiring) and Nathan wants me to sign him up for a 5k (he has never done one) and I am thinking a color type run may be fun for all of us as a family. There is one over Labor Day weekend in the Fall that I am looking into for all of us. Can’t wait! So glad my kids share my love for running and maybe Brian will, too one day (he much prefers lifting weights). Yay to another successful zoo race!
