A few months ago, my sister sent me an e-mail asking me if I’d like to run with my niece. Alabama schools have joined up with Blue Cross and Blue Shield, as well as Mercedes (who has a plant in Alabama), to create a kids’ marathon. The program is for grades K-5, and the children run 25.2 miles on their own, in stages of 1/4 mile to 1 mile. If the complete their 25.2 miles, they then run the last mile of their run on the actual Birmingham Mercedes Marathon course on the Saturday before the full adult marathon. I love to run, and I adore my niece, so it was a no-thought process to say that I’d love to come down and run with WCN (World’s Cutest Niece).

Last weekend was race weekend, so Meredith and I flew from Akron/Canton to Atlanta, which was a pretty cheap (and direct) flight. It still left a three-hour drive, which was not helped by a thirty-minute wait in line to get our car, but we were underway in time to get to Kelly and Paul’s place around midnight Alabama time (1:00 am EST). Since Mer and I had worked a full day, it was a long drive to end the day, coming in at around three hours. Happily, the drive was uneventful, if also not terribly interesting in the dark.

On Saturday, Mer and Kelly and WCN and I all piled into Kelly’s van to take the hour-long drive to Birmingham. I was grateful that the race was late morning, so Mer and I still got around seven hours of sleep. I was in the way-back of the van with WCN, while Kelly and Mer were in the front seats. WCN and I played a game where we took turns hiding coins in one of our fists, and then the other had to guess the correct hand. We hammed it up by opening the “wrong” hand or by clenching our fists, and we had a good time.

Kelly and Mer dropped us about a block from the main square where the race was to start, and they went on a quest to find parking. WCN and I walked to the park and planted ourselves by a pretty fountain, which is where Kelly said WCN’s classmates were going to meet for a class picture. The place was mobbed, and since WCN is short and I do not know her classmates, we did not find them. Happily, Kelly found us and then located the class for me, so that worked out fine.

I was impressed at how well-run the race was. The race officials had the kids line up behind signs that had their grade levels printed on them. When the time came, they called the grade level out, and the runners walked through a chute to a staging area. A set of volunteers would raise a rope stretched across the street, the runners would advance to the next rope, and so on until they got to the starting line. It worked well. Since the runners were timed by chips on their running bibs, there was no mad crush to get to the front.

While the kids are still in kindergarten or in first grade, an adult (usually a parent) can run with the child. After that, adults are not allowed. WCN is in first grade, so this would be my only time to run with her, unless and until she gets into road races later on. WCN and I got called to the first grade maker, so we said goodbye to Kelly and Mer, and we lined up. We then were allowed into the chutes, and up to the corral system, and finally to the starting line.

WCN is adorable, and she held my hand for over three quarters of the mile race. We kept up a good pace, especially for her little legs, and she had a great attitude. She smiled a lot, and she finally asked politely if we could walk some after we hit the half-mile turnaround point. She did not walk long, however, and we started running again. I learned a happily injury-free lesson – I took my eyes off the road to say something to another adult, and promptly ran into the back of a little girl, whom I was able to catch so she did not fall over. Never take your eyes off the road when there are short runners around! The rest of the race was without incident.

There were a ton of spectators along the course, and the whole thing was supervised by enthusiastic National Guard members, who were giving out a ton of high-fives to the kids, including to WCN. It was a good experience. We crossed the finish line, where we were greeted by Batman and the Green Arrow, since the race weekend also has a “Superhero 5k” on the Saturday before the marathon. Later, in the marathon expo, where I was picking up my race things for Sunday, we also saw Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, and The Phantom. It was much fun.

After the race and the marathon expo, we walked the several blocks to the car. Kelly offered to take us out to lunch, and we agreed that this would be welcome. She said she had an idea for dessert, and along the was she decided some real food might be good, so we swung into a mom-and-pop BBQ place. The place was busy, but we found a seat, and we ordered. The food was quite good. After lunch, Kelly took us to her treat place she had in mind – Steel City Pops, a gourmet popsicle store. I have to be honest – I was not too thrilled. I’m not a huge popsicle fan; they are cold and hurt my teeth, and they taste like fruit, which I would rather eat or drink. I held my peace, though, and it was a good thing. Steel City Pops had a line out the door, and I found out why. The did have fruit-variety popsicles, but they also had cream-based ones. I was suddenly quite interested, especially when I saw that they could dip the popsicle in chocolate. I happily ordered a creamy peanut butter popsicle dipped in chocolate (Mer got the same), and happily munched on that. It still hurt my teeth a little, but it was worth it. Steel City Pops really seems to be onto something – they have a super-fast-turnover, quality product for which people line up, even in the out-of-the-way spot where the store is located.

We got home in the late afternoon to discover that Paul and World’s Cutest Nephew (WCNep) were home. WCNep had been to a Star-Wars-themed birthday party, and was touting a newly bought light sabre that made motion-sensitive noises. It was very cool. Paul announced that he was going to show WCNep Star Wars for the first time, so I joined them both in the master bedroom, where we watched the movie. WCN joined us partway through the movie, snuggled up next to me, and pretty quickly fell asleep. It was a grand way to spend time with the extended family. After the movie, Kelly made the adults a lasagna (the kids had hot dogs), and we chatted around the table until it was time to put the kids to bed. I went to sleep soon after that myself, since I had to be up early the next day for the marathon.