I've been wanting to write this particular post since the night of our big family cookout. (See my earlier post titled
Happy Family Photo Night.)
After we had all eaten dinner that night, Eli challenged my sister Kim to a foot race. I believe Eli told Kim that he would beat her, so the stage was set for a real showdown. (Later on I heard that Kim and Eli had some secret plot that other people had to race Eli if he was able to beat Kim. But my recollection of how that went down is a bit sketchy....)
The parameters were to run across the lawn, go around the tree, and run back to the starting point.
Kim did some floppy thing with her arms and basically ran in slow-motion partway across the lawn and back. (There was no tree involved.)
Eli won.
This led to a race with Glen. If I remember correctly, Glen threw his race and allowed Eli to win again.
(You do know where this is going, right....?)
"Tia, will you race me?" I couldn't decline such a request, but I told Eli that I was really going to try and beat him.
I ran my hardest. I really did. I even cheated by not circling the tree. And I still lost.
My excuse was that I was running barefoot, so I had to be careful not to slip on the grass and fall. (I could hear Kim yelling at me to be careful.) But I'm still not sure I could have beaten Eli. A 55-year-old woman is no match for a boy of six-and-a-half (almost seven).
By the way, Josh and Zachariah were able to beat Eli. Zack would have won his race, too, had they finished; Zack decided to tackle Eli instead.
Even though I lost fair and square, I'm still glad that I raced Eli.
And as for my left foot, it took only three weeks to recover.
