Yesterday morning we all headed downtown for another family 5K, The Suncoast Classic.

We love this race because it is in our beloved downtown St. Pete and because it benefits such a great cause, The Ronald McDonald House Charities. At the Suncoast Classic last year I did the 10K and the boys all did the Pelican Mile and the kids’ fun run.

This year the course was changed a bit.

We met up with a bunch of my IRunMommies friends in front of the Fit2Run St. Pete store where the race was starting.

I also got to see my friend Callie, The Wannabe Athlete, who I have been missing so much since she moved to Venice. As usual, she had her family entourage in tow.

I was so happy to finally get to meet her newest little sweet potato, Little Miss Athlete, and to get to see the always adorable Mini Athlete again.

The IRunMommies have been fundraising our tails off for this event, and the fabulous McGee literally fundraised her tail by selling advertising space on it.

I tried to sell advertising on my rear end, but nobody wanted to buy it. Oh well.

People who aren’t into the whole road race scene probably can’t understand, but it is so fun to meet up with so many friends and their families and do something active in the city that we love. Special props to my friend Christie’s daughter Grace who ran her first 5K race yesterday! Go Gracie!

It was also really nice to meet IRunMommy Angela (above on the left) who told me she reads my blog all the time…thanks Angela!

The 10K kicked off first and with it came the rain. It was pretty chilly by Florida standards, but the IRunMommies didn’t let the cold rain dampen their spirits.

We briefly considered bailing on the 5K because I was a little leery of making the kids run in the cold rain, but we sucked it up and headed to the start.

Because of the rain, however, I did not carry my camera or my phone on the course. So for the first time ever I have NO photos of our race on the course. Sadness. It was pretty cool too because they have already set up many of the barriers for the Honda Grand Prix that will be taking place downtown in a couple of weeks. Oh well. Just refer to last year’s pictures.

Mack ran ahead at the end and finished in 40:58 and the rest of us crossed at 41:55. My friend Callie snapped this photo of her sister coming into the finish and Chad, Cal, and I were right behind her.

This was one of our fastest family 5K’s yet. I think we may have been a little faster last year at the Belleair Sunset 5K, but there was no chip timing for that race so I’m not sure. At the next small 5K that we do as a family we’re just going to let the boys run at their own pace. Mack wants to run all out!

After the race we got in line for some food…

but sadly all of the Jimmy Johns subs were gone. We did get bagels and bananas, though, so we didn’t starve. We hung out for just a little while chatting with friends and Cal got to see his science teacher which was probably only just slightly awkward for him.

We didn’t stay too long because I needed to get home and run another 7 miles before the contractors were coming to do some more work on our master bathroom. I’m sad that I missed the kids runs and the awards, but I heard that the IRunMommies did indeed get first place as team fundraisers for the third year in a row! Also, I found out that I was the third place top individual fundraiser. Wow. Ronald McDonald thanked me personally.

Thank you so much to all who donated to our team, and to those who donated to me personally: Liz, Kelly, my mom, Kat, Beka, Cindy, Linda, and Bobbi-Jo…thank you! Thank you also to PDQ St. Petersburg for hosting three fundraiser nights for our team. I know it may be annoying to have to hear people begging for donations for charities, but it means so much to those who benefit from them. It’s hard to fundraise, but it’s also very rewarding.

Thanks again for your support! Cya.