We spent Father's Day cheering on our favorite mountain biker, the perfect way to celebrate the wonderful daddy that he is. The kids just love yelling "go, daddy, gooooo!" and saying "daddy bike fast!".
Now that they both have their own little balance bikes, we decided to sign them up for the kids' race. This race course was on one big hill and little did we know when we signed them up that their race was all the way at the bottom. Thankfully, two kind spectators offered to help carry their bikes both ways. Almanzo, of course, was upset that he couldn't ride his bike all the way down the hill, but the thought of him careening down that big steep hill with racers still making their way up to the finish line made this mommy queasy!
The kids were so excited to get their own race number plates for their bikes and were quite serious about racing as they lined up with the kids four and under. The moment they heard "goooooo!", Valerie was off right at the front of the pack, but Almanzo took a little more coaxing. I think he was a bit bewildered by it all and slightly overheated already from the hot sun beating down on us.
I ran all the way around the little course cheering him on and he got a big grin when the way back was slightly downhill and the rest of the parents cheered him on. Valerie decided to slow down from the front of the pack to wait for her brother and kept telling me "this hard, mommy!" but was equally happy as she got cheered on to the finish and excited to show off her medal to daddy after his race. It's really amazing how fast they can already go on their little bikes!
There was a nice playground and a shady spot near the finish, so we spread our blanket and our race day supplies out and the kids enjoyed swinging and sliding in between watching daddy race. It wasn't exactly the most spectator friendly race course, especially since race rules required us to stand on the right hand side for water bottle hand ups - right in the bright, hot sun.
Thankfully, the kids were really good about standing back while the racers flew past us, but it was difficult to know when to rush over to catch Ted during each lap. I was really confused about the amount of laps too, so I ended up missing a hand up for the last lap, when he really needed some water. He said he stopped and looked around for me, bewildered by the heat and his need for water until someone offered him a water bottle. I felt terrible, but he explained that there were five laps instead of the usual four and even he was confused about it.
It wasn't the best race day for our favorite mountain biker, but he told me later that he enjoyed his father's day and was glad we could come cheer him on. Next year, he'll have THREE little ones cheering him on for race days!
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