A Full Family 5k

Saturday, June 6, 2009, there was a 5k race in Bountiful. Cousin Nikki (Mom/Margie's niece, daughter of her brother Merrill) and her Callahan (can you believe there are two Callahan's in the family?) were hosting a run to raise fund and awareness for MLD. Their daughter Eliza was diagnosed with Metachromatic Leukodystrophy, a rare genetic disorder that affects nerves, muscles, other organs, and behavior.

Here's an excerpt from my journal from the day of the race ...

We had talked about going as a family and had decided to do it, all of us. The older boys were pretty excited, I brought a scooter for Keaton to participate and keep up easily, and the two babies would be in the stroller. The two oldest were up and at it early, but I practically had to dress Colton while he was sleeping. We were out the door by about quarter to 7:00 and made it there in good time (in Bountiful). Shane and Alicia were there. I had known they were coming, but was surprised to see Chris and Corin and my dad, and Derek and Danielle. So lots of support from the Westra side, plus of course many of my cousins. Gray was pushing the stroller (I’d end up walking if I did) and he started with Keaton, while I started closer to the front with the big boys. They were off at the start and I didn’t have a chance of catching up to them. Gray caught up to me shortly, passed Keaton off to me and took off. Keaton was good, going just a little faster than me, keeping me jogging the entire time. My only stops were at a stoplight as needed for traffic, or when we came upon Landon near the end (his sprint at the start had used up all his energy, and he was sitting by the side of the road).  He took over the scooter and Keaton ran the remaining half to quarter mile. I was just under 32 minutes ... usually I’m at least 40 for three miles *Ü* so that made me happy. I felt pretty dang good. I wished I had remembered the camera!

 As I mention not having a camera - I'm not positive where the pictures came from. Maybe Alicia? Or an event photographer, with the photos shared online afterward? It was fun to see so much family and community support.

Eliza passed away July 8, 2015. You can read a little of her story here. 

We'd gotten up and off so early we hadn't really had a proper breakfast, so we stopped at a family favorite Virg's for some food on the way home. Landon was wiped out though, and elected to stay in the car and nap. I thought for sure he'd come in ... but he didn't, and once home, he went to bed there too! Gray and I had another activity for the day, a hike. It was around 3 miles too. I remember noting the difference in my Fitbit steps. "Running" (in quotes because I can't say I was really running) those three miles got bigger, but fewer steps (around 5000). The hike, both uphill and down called for small steps, so the three miles there netted around 8000 steps! The "average" number of steps for a mile is 2000, but it sure can vary!