Brothers Mack, who will be 9 in a week, and Aidan, who was six in September, ran in the Jingle Bell Fun Run Saturday morning. The distance was a mile and during the race the rain changed to snow. Their mom, Jill, reports:
The boys came in third and fourth overall…Aidan was third.
Yep, Aidan ran a [personal best] 7:40 and Mack was right behind him at 7:41.
To be fair, Mack struggled the whole way and threw up two times after the race. He had thrown up Thursday at school, and was home sick yesterday. He has a bunch of junk in his lungs and has that cough that has passed from Aidan to Reid to him.
I know, I couldn’t believe he was out there, either (after I saw him halfway through, begging me for oxygen as he came around — like was I supposed to have a spare tank sitting by me?). I think he thought he had a chance to win overall, which is always fun. And on a normal day he probably would have. …
In typical fashion, after the race Mack was crying about doing poorly, and feeling sick, and Aidan didn’t say a word. In the car, Mack looked at me and said, “Aidan beat me (sob sob).” I looked at Aidan and Aidan softly said, “I wanted him to win.”