The Du Run Run, the Du Run Run

On Tuesday evening both Georgie and Henry participated in the Du Run Run, which is a race that benefits Special Olympics - Wisconsin. The races are divided by age group, so Georgie was in the 2-year-old race (50 yards) and Henry was in 5-6 year old race (run half the track, bike a whole track, run half a track). Georgie was fired up for his race and when the official said "go" he was off like a rocket! He easily won the race (full disclaimer: there were only 5 other participants, and I don't think the rest of them really understood what they were supposed to do). But he basked in the glory of his victory, and we were all very excited. He stood up on the podium to get his award, proud as could be. And I was thinking, FINALLY, all of this excess energy pays off for something! Although when I was chasing him around Target that morning I was not so happy about his running ability. The little guy really is fast.

So Henry was so excited to do his race after he saw Georgie's win. He said, "I'm gonna win my race too!" I braced myself for the inevitable, and sure enough, we had a poor loser situation on our hands moments later. Henry's a young 5 year old, and some of those 6 year olds were very speedy. He was about halfway around the track on his bike lap when he realized that he had no chance at winning and he broke down into tears, got off his bike, and threw himself in the middle of the football field. These are tough lessons to learn, but this is life. I did tell him that next year he would be 6 and have a better shot at winning. That didn't make much difference to him. Then I pointed out that they were giving out gummy bears and hot dogs to all the participants. That did make a difference, and he was over his disappointment after snarfing down some gummy bears. Ah, the magical healing power of high fructose corn syrup.