Daycare at a race!
Jeremy had a race near Espoo on Saturday. The kids and I often tag along to his races to support him, and certain races do a better job than others at being family-friendly (not that it's their primary job to be family-friendly, but it certainly makes a difference to me!). This race on Saturday is now one of my favorites: not only is it held in an area with a playground and an indoor bathroom; not only does it have huge recycling bins you can sort your trash into; but it also has an on-site daycare! Which means that on Saturday, I got to run a race, too!
Granted, it was the youth 6km race, and I ran it only unofficially alongside Miriam, but I would not have been able to do that without childcare for Sterling. When you live far away from family, it can be very difficult finding all-day babysitters for this kind of thing. So it was such a miracle to bring him with us and then drop him off at a little cottage right by the start/finish line for a few hours. Jeremy ran his 21km, the girls and I ran our 6k, and Sterling enjoyed playing with other kids, cheering on the racers, and eating some hot chicken soup for lunch.
It felt like we were wanted at the event - both of us, not just Jeremy! It felt like someone saw us, far away from Grandpa and Grandma and said, "let's give them a break." It felt like...the future, somehow? We definitely want to do this race again, since they've made it so easy for the whole family to participate!
