Maia's First 5K

About a week ago I saw a promotion for The Jingle Rock Run... a local 5K that is a fundraiser for the Make-A-Wish  Foundation. It's a fun run where everyone dresses up and runs through Christmas lights in downtown Honolulu. There's a big kids race, etc. The fact that they had a pet division sold me, so I told Scott we were donating $100 to a good cause and now we had something fun to do as a family on Sunday evening... :)

Moana has been a bit under the weather so her energy levels are pretty low, but she jogged through the kids race and got her shirt and her medal and she was happy.

Maia got dressed up in her elf outfit and was ready to run.

It seemed like we had to wait around forever until they finally let us start the 5K. I wasn't sure Maia would really know what was going on, but I tell you what... the race started and everyone started running and she was like

OH WE'RE RUNNING!?! 

AWESOME LET'S GO RUNNING!!!!

I'm not kidding she took off like a rocket. Turns out she is highly competitive and with so many people running ahead of her she was not at all confused as to what she was supposed to do...  She was attached at my waist but darting off ahead and dragging me along and I was laughing my ass off because the whole thing was so funny to me. My legs literally would not go as fast as hers though... and then a dalmatian ran by with his owner and she was like OH YOU WANT TO RACE DO YOU?!? She sure tried to match him step for step and I'm sure she could have but I just couldn't move my legs that fast so that dog got away.

She kept up her blistering pace for about a mile and then abruptly stopped on the road and took a dump. Ha! Good thing I brought a baggie along... But how was that... cleaning up her poop then what do you do? Run holding a steaming hot little bag that's what you do. I carried it maybe 1/2 mile until I found a trash can. By that point Maia had calmed a bit so she trotted by my side at a more sane pace for the rest of the race. We officially finished in 26:43, but you figure 30" to cross the start line and another 30" or so for the poop break... Plus me as an anchor that first mile. She's a badass. She was the 2nd dog across the line but we didn't hang out to get her award b/c Moana wasn't feeling so hot by then so we figured we should head home and let her get to bed.

Overall that was a blast and I would take Maia to do it again in a heartbeat!