walk a mile {and skin your knees}

March 30, 2011- After a postponement due to rain and cold, the Harper school Walk-a-Thon fundraiser happened!  Pecos was excited and eager to spend the school day racing around the track with his friends.  And chowing down on concession stand junk!  

The kids were soooooooooo very excited when they first got on the track.  So excited that most of them took off running for their first lap.  I was getting my things all sorted and in a spot for the day and getting my camera out to take pics of my little racer when he came around the track.  But before I could get set one of the girls in Pecos' class ran up to tell me that Pecos fell and was hurt really bad.  OH NO! I just knew he'd skinned up his knees.  Oh yeah, he did.  And not just a scuff, this was full scale oozing and redness that can only be brought on when skin hits pavement- at a full run.  He had also managed to scrape both elbows, his nose and an ear.  If you know me well, then you know he has acquired this lack of grace naturally.

At hearing the news of his stunt work I tried to find him because I was certain he'd be upset and I wasn't quite sure how bad the damage was.  I had a bit of trouble locating him because not only did this happen on the far side of the track from where I was, there happened to be 200 kids all wearing the same white t-shirt.  So I started walking upstream to the traffic of walkers and finally found him coming toward me- in tears.  When I saw the knees I was so saddened because I knew his excitement for the day had fizzled.  AND I knew he'd be upset with me because I had talked him into wearing shorts.  He wanted to wear his jeans and told me precisely- "Mom, if I wear my jeans then I won't hurt my knees if I trip and fall."  Such wisdom for such a young age.

I took my teary-eyed walker to get some first aid, but I couldn't locate anyone with a first aid kit and mine was too far away in the parking lot to carry Pecos to it- he was done walking at this point. We got to the bathroom and I tried to wash his knees when a teacher friend of mine saw us and promptly escorted us to the field house so Coach White could patch him up.  Pecos didn't want a picture getting fixed up in the locker room and since he had such wounded pride over the whole ordeal I didn't force it.  Here's what the knees looked like for the rest of the walk-a-thon.

Here's what they looked like later in the day when we took off the band-aids.  Ouch!

In addition to the band-aids, a trip to the concession stand for candy and Gatorade seemed to cheer him up a bit.  And he was ready to hit the track again- but not with his knees.  And not at a full run.  While he walked I worked my shift at the concession stand.  Pecos walked for a while and made a couple visits to see me and load up on junk.  I'm pretty sure he helped himself to a Dr. Pepper {or two, or three}.  Later, I went out on the track to see if he wanted to eat lunch and I found him strolling along.

We walked together for a lap or two, then took a break.  

inspecting his lap card

After lunch I worked a shift at the bead table where walkers collect beads for the laps they walk and put them on a necklace.  Pecos was eager to earn his beads which kept him motivated to walk for a little while longer.

He found his sweet friend Kinsey and walked with her for a while.  

On their approach to the bead table I got this picture.  I asked Pecos why he wasn't on the track.  His reply: "Because I wanted to run to the table but didn't want to scrape my knees again!"  

So that's our re-cap of the infamous Harper Walk-a-Thon.  Thanks to everyone who sponsored Pecos and supported the school and PTO.  Pecos walked 4 miles despite his 45-minute injury time out.  Here he is at the awards ceremony with some of his prizes.