Know what makes the Thin Mint Sprint such a fun run?

The cookies Tagalong!

Allana and I had such a fun time at last year’s FIRST ever Thin Mint Sprint hosted by the Girl Scouts of West Central Florida. We were honored and thrilled when the GSWCF offered my girls and I race entries to participate in the tastiest race in Tampa Bay again!

This year, Emmalynn tagged along for the 5K. I originally had signed her up for the 1 mile fun run, but she has really been doing so well with the 3 mile distance. I knew she could run it, especially with Girl Scout cookies at the finish line to motivate her.

With a postcard sunrise glowing on the Safety Harbor marina, the race was off to a gorgeous start. Since I knew my girls would want to run and walk a bit throughout the course, we meandered to the back of the crowd where we bumped into Jenny of Metamorfit and her daughter, Haley.

Jenny’s son, Ronin, set his sight on scoring some cookies and if you look closely at the crowd of runners at the start, you can see that little blond cutie toeing the start line in the left corner.

After the saxophone solo of the Star -Spangled Banner, the race was underway. The girls and I maintained an easy 12:00 – 13:00 minute mile. I encouraged Emmalynn to run an easy pace until the first water station at a mile where we would take our first walking break and my runner rock star totally did it.

I guess our pace was a tad too slow for Big Sister Allana because she ran ahead. Or at least she pretended to run ahead. Emmalynn and I spotted Allana walking more than usual and we caught up to her quite quickly on more than one occasion.

Between mile one and mile two, Emmalynn needed to walk a bit more.  After the mile two water station, we took a longer walking break and then ran for a half mile. Once we spotted the mile two water station, we took another walking break and I let Emmalynn choose her next running start point.  “We’ll run when we reach that lady.”

While we trotted along, Emmalynn commented on how pretty Safety Harbor is. It truly is a beautiful downtown district and I believe the conversation helped distract her from what she was doing.

As we approached the turnaround point, we caught up to Allana once again. Instead of darting off this time, Allana gave Emmalynn a quick runner cuddle and stayed by her side to help pace her little sister.

With only a half mile to go, I told the girls to pick up the pace and finish strong! I tried to encourage Emmalynn to sprint to the finish line, but she wasn’t feeling it. She crossed the finish line at her own pace as Ronin cheered her on waving his box of cookies! (He was very excited to finish in the top 50 males! Can you tell?!)

 43:50

Ave Pace 13:57

Emmalynn rocked the race and she was so proud of her medal!

But snacking on stacks of Girl Scout cookies was the real reward!

Just for the record, healthy post-race snacks were also available but they are not nearly as popular.

Well, it is all about energy balance, right?

As long as the Thin Mint Sprint continues to offers stacks of Girl Scout cookies and beautifully designed medals for all runners, no matter their running level, this race will always be a favorite fun run for my girls and me. #willrunforcookies