During the seven inning stretch, Carolyn took Malachi and LilyGrace down on the field to sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” with Crater and the other kids. (Guess it is time to teach them the words to this song.)
After the game, I took them down to the field to run the bases. As we stood in line waiting our turn, I asked Malachi if he would run alone and he said yes. I asked LilyGrace if she would run alone and she said no. I took a deep breath and prepared to try to run the bases.
About half way down the first base line, LilyGrace stopped. Looked up at me. “Don’t run.” She took off running again. I left the field with a sigh of relief and went to wait on them at home plate.
Malachi made it around and came to stand by me. LilyGrace, however, ran across home plate and without stopping turned left and headed back towards first. Malachi looked up at me and asked, “Can I run again?” “Yes,” and he was off and running. He finished lap two and came to stand next to me again. We watched her finish lap two, turn left and start a third lap, without looking up or slowing down. Malachi looked up at me, “Can I run again?” “Yes.” He took off with less enthusiasm this time, got halfway to first, turned left and headed across the pitcher’s mound making his third round a bit shorter.
Carolyn joined us at home plate where we were all yelling “STOP” as she rounded home plate and started lap four. She was not going as fast as round one, but she was still giving it her all. There were 2 or 3 men on the field and they were all staring in amazement. All the other kids were done and off the field. She was out there alone running those bases like a champ.
As she finished lap four, Carolyn scooped her up as she rounded home plate and started running lap five. LilyGrace looked at Carolyn with shock on her face, she was not done running! One of the men came over and gave both kids a high five. When we got home, I gave each of them one of my 5k medals. We did the math, and Lily Grace ran ¼ of a mile.