To Race or Not to Race...

So I was talking to Becky tonight about the 5K in Champaign and I was wondering if we were going to do this or not or Becky suggested maybe we do our own "family" race. Here are my thoughts and I wanted to see what you thought.

I am not sure about sleeping in the tent only to get up to run a race. Plus I know the kids will want to be out late at the campfire Friday night and I just wonder how it will all work out with us camping.

I also know we have a lot of little ones and not sure who would be able to watch them or how fun it would be for them to just "hang" while we are off running around C-U.

I was wondering if we could do our own Family Race? We could run/jog/walk on the bike path the 5K and then EVERYONE could do it. Strollers, pets, kids, etc. The bikepath is safe, not very crowded, mostly shaded. We could do cute T-shirts and at the end have a "break station" with drinks/snacks and AWARDS. We could have someone be the official timer and make it as "official" as we wanted.

We could then do it when we wanted as well. Like we could go to the 4th of July parade in the morning and then the kids games. Eat lunch and then do the race. I know... not ideal for racing but like I said... the early morning this after camping doesn't sound to fun with all of the kiddos.

So... let me know what you all think because we need to make plans soon and if I am going to order T-shirts I want to do that right away too.

Jen