"To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift."
~ Steve Prefontaine
What do you do when you have 3 boys and you're not terrifically athletically gifted, but you want to be active and you want the ever elusive "Quality Time" with them? You run. And you try to keep up. 
The Merritt boys were built for speed. I am sure of it. Ben's cross country coach assures me of this fact when he asks why we're letting Ben "waste time" on other sports... these kids are fast.Ben felt a little bit of a celebrity when we went to pick up the race numbers. The sweet gal at the table said, "Woah, I was hoping to meet you- You're the only yellow tag in my box." Note: box was for [Males age 1-9 last names L-Z] He was excited. We stood in line to change Will's Blue color start to Green based on fast past times. Jeez, was it ever worth it!
We've been training. Will rocked the St. Patty's 5 (mile) race with Micky in less than and hour. Micky wondered why everyone thought that Will was so great... "What about ME finishing in under an hour. Isn't that worth talking about?" Sure it is, babe. But you're 34, not 6!! So when it came time for Bloomsday we were ready. We had our strategies and we had our running teams and we were stoked for fun. We pre-funked with bananas and Beyonce and the Zags 'uhhhhoooohhhuuhhh' song in the van. I cannot think of a more sunny gorgeous Bloomsday. Ever.
Ben ran with Auntie Jamie and Uncle Bill. Between the two of them we figured one ought to be able to keep up with Ben. They did! Barely. It was good pacing. Good energy. Great speed. And a tremendous 'kick' in the end that allowed Ben to finish a good 15 seconds ahead of them. Ben's next goal is sub 9:00 minute miles, then to break an hour. Hey- if the shoe fits!!
Speaking of shoes- Will found his. (Ha! our joke with Will losing EvErYtHinG he owns courtesy of our Nanny, Jess) And they pounded the pavement all the way to the finish line. William even had a bathroom break at a 'pee-tree' somewhere before Browne's Addition about 1/2 mile in. Our first mile time was 12:30, so at some point mid-race he cruised through a couple 9-minute miles himself. Granpy and I kept up with the pace. But when the kid literally SPRINTED up Doomsday Hill we were panting. Hard. The best line was when we were discussing Will's goal along the course at the water station along the community college about Mile 4 1/2. He had hit mile 3 at 33 minutes, mile 4 at 44 minutes, and wanted to hit all "the doubles." Well, when we rolled into mile 5 at 53 minutes and talked about his quicker than 11 minute mile pace, he said "I feel that goal just melting away." That's what happens when you smoke the course.
Run boys, run!!
William P Merritt
Finish Time: 1:19:03
Overall place: 11,522 out of 49,674 finishers
Ran with a pace of 10:35 per mile
Average pace for 6 year-olds was 20:30
Benjamin M Merritt
Finish Time: 1:08:13
Overall place: 6,013 out of 49,674 finishers
Ran with a pace of 9:08 per mile
Average pace for 8 year-olds was 18:25
There are some terrific photos-ops of Will on the Bloomsday website.
Click on the side bar under 'results' and 'all finishers' then it will prompt you to the right side of the screen where you can type in their names. So fun. Man, what a tremendous feeling to accomplish a goal. Together. With the gifts God gave us. Amen.
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