Do the Rocky shuffle

Rocky is the Raccoon mascot for Grace's school.  There aren't too many elementary schools with their own mascot and he is a big hit with the kids.  He even has his own dance - the Rocky Shuffle!

This time of year, the school's PTA does a race as their fundraiser.  All the classes compete to raise money and the community really gets involved on race day.  I heard that as of Friday they had made $36,000 for the school and Grace's class raised the most money and won a DJ dance party!

Grace decided to run the 1-mile FUN RUN again instead of the 5K.  She got up at 7:00am for the 8:00 race start. We like to sleep late in this house, so none of us were that thrilled with waking up so early on a Sunday!

But it was all worth it when we got to the race - even though it was about 37 degrees and our feet got soaked immediately from the dew on the grass.  Grace got right up front at the starting line, near Mayor Drew (she is in the pink T-shirt).

Grace gave me her hat, jacket, and gloves and, before we knew it the race started!  I told Grace I would be at the finish (and I said a little prayer that she would be okay since the race course took her out of my sight). Volunteer photographers took photos along both the 1-mile and 5K race routes so I got to see these photos of Grace along the trail.

I didn't know when to expect her to finish but less than 9 minutes later she was running up the final hill!

Three boys from Grace's class finished 1st, 2nd, and 3rd and Grace came in about 8th.  I think she was the first girl to cross the finish line. She was very proud!

We got a photo with Rocky, stayed for the start of the 5K, and then called Kyle to pick us up.  Our wet toes were freezing!

Maybe she will be able to do the 5K next year!