Family 5K

Good times today!

This morning, we participated in the Tyler Run for Autism, organized by the Treatment and Learning Center for Children with Autism, an awesome organization dedicated to ABA therapy for our kiddos on the Spectrum. (because as you may or may  not know, most insurances don't pay for ABA therapy and it's NOT inexpensive).

It was an amazing experience for many reasons.

1. Luke ran his first 5K...in 31 minutes. According to his dad, he talked and high-fived trees all the way through. Ran effortlessly. Not too shabby for an 8-year-old, if I do say so myself, and he was happy to have run with his dad.

Eye of the Tiger

2. Curt and I power-walked the course and we got to do it with a good friend and her daughter, who is also on the Spectrum.

I walked the race to keep pace with Curt, but he ended up keeping up with us. Both of my boys ROCK.

3. I got to participate in a race for autism with my child, who has autism. Priceless. 

4. At the race, Curt was introduced to the overall third place winners of the 5K, "J" and  his twin brother, "J." The conversation went something like this:
J1: Hi, I'm an autistic.
J2: I'm an autistic, too.
Curt: Hello, my name is Curt. I have an autism brain.
J1: I understand you.
J2: That's very interesting.
Curt: I"m going to go to the bounce house now.

I stuck around to talk to J and J for a few minutes. Twins, they ran the race together and placed third overall. J1 has a perseverative interest American history, particularly the Civil War. J2 is an artist, who "doesn't even trace." I don't know many older children on the autism spectrum, so talking to these young men was heart-warming, inspiring, eye-opening and yes, a bit freaky. One of the things I've always wondered is whether the unique cadence of Curt's speech will dissipate with age...um...not so much. J and J had the exact same inflections and exact same speech patterns. Kinda freaky, kinda cool. But here are these two young men, who excel at running, history and art, who warmed my heart. And I think I'll seek them out. It would be nice to have some mentors for Curt.

5.  And finally, it was just nice to go to ANOTHER event in the great city of TYLER that promotes community, unity, understanding, awareness and comprehension. I love this city.

6. It was also fun to participate with my TMT peeps.  Our Fit City challenges have been a way to bond, get healthy and have fun. Not to mention that several of us have children with autism. (Yo, it's 1 in 88 kids now).

Oh and 7. We ate breakfast at The Diner after. Yummo.