Fun Run

Every year, Clayton's school does a fun run as their major fundraiser. Each child can try to get sponsors, but whether they get sponsors or not, they get to participate. I like this for several reasons. First, they aren't trying to sell some random overpriced junk that no one really needs. Second, it promotes fitness. The kids are out there and they're active. Plus they make it so fun! Third, when they get sponsors, the donation is completely up to the sponsor, so people can donate $1 or $100. Whatever. This year the goal of the fun run was to raise $18,500. Not all the donations are in yet, but they've raised over $16,000! Impressive! This is, by far, the best fundraiser that I've ever seen a school do. Ever.

Yesterday was the event. Parents and siblings were encouraged to come out and support the students as they ran/walked/skipped around the track. Clayton had been looking forward to this fun run for a couple of weeks and he was so excited when it was finally fun run day. Justin, Noah, Josie, and I went down to Clayton's school to cheer him on. When we got there, the kids were stretching. SOO cute! Then it was time to run. I didn't quite realize what a big deal this fun run was. They had music (and real 'on the radio' music, not just kid stuff), a mascot (a cheetah named Max), pom poms for the younger siblings to use to cheer the runners on, race numbers for each kid to stick on their front or back (it made it seem like a real race), and popsicles for everyone when the kids were done running (which excited Noah to no end). It was a great event and I'm so glad that we all got to go down there and support Clayton.

Clayton really impressed us. He ran almost the whole time (if I had to guess, I'd guess he ran about a mile). He's like his mother, slow but steady. He would get so excited when he'd run by where we were standing and hear us scream for him.

Here are some of the pics:
Here is some of the stretching. They did some really funny stuff that I wish I'd have gotten on camera, but it was hard to get a good angle of Clayton because it seemed like no matter where I moved, there was a kid blocking my shot!


I love this action shot! Check out that form!
He would always look at us and smile and wave when he passed us. I'm so glad that we were there to be his fan club!
I thought this was cute. At different times we all went out and ran a lap with him. Noah and I went first, and then Justin ran a lap with Clayton towards the end. It was nice because I think Clayton was starting to get tired, but having Justin out there with him was the boost he needed to keep running!
Yum! A nice cold popsicle after a hard run race!
I felt kind of bad for Noah because he saw all the kids getting popsicles but I thought they were just for the students. I was trying to explain that to him when a woman came around and gave him a popsicle. He just lit up. It made me really happy to see him like that! (And those are bug bites all over his face from the Father's and Son's campout last weekend. I swear this kid is like dessert to Mosquitoes!)
Clayton and his 'team' (class) with Max the Cheetah.
I was so proud of how Clayton did!
Justin was pretty proud of him too!
This was funny. Josie is quite the dancer these days. When she heard the music she really wanted to get out of her stroller and dance. We were hesitant to let her though because we didn't want her running down to the track and distracting the runners. After the kids were done, however, we let her loose. And she sure did get down! I tried to get it on video, but I wasn't fast enough. Sad.
This is a little blurry, but I think it's insanely cute so I'm including it anyway!

This was such a fun event! I can't wait to do it again next year!