Fugitive

Last night was our annual DeMartini Family Fugitive game. Brandt and Blythe have been talking about it for weeks, planning routes, talking about years past, scheming how they might catch people. Blythe asked me to run with her and Makenna, and I agreed I would. We swam in the afternoon, then went to Christopher and Tysen's house for dinner, then waited for it to get dark.

As we were getting ready to load up to drive to the stake center, everyone was dividing into teams. Rowen (6) and Collin (9) wanted to run this year, the first time for both of them. None of the big kids really wanted them on their teams, so I agreed to run with them. We called our team RoCoKa. We drove over to the stake center, took the obligatory picture, and then launched off.

I don't know the three kids between Crew and Griffin. 

But the rest are DeMars, ready for another year of fun.

We had three cars hunting: Mikayla with Cora and Kal and Blake, Eugene and Sharae, and Christopher and Tysen. They drove slowly through the neighborhood, peering out the windows and trying to find us.

I was fairly convinced that we were going to get caught early on, and I think everyone else was too. The young guys who ran with Crew and Griffin (I don't know all of them) were all athletic and fast, and were probably confident they could make it back to the house with ease. Brandt, Luke, Blythe, and Makenna all decided to go together, which is not as good because that's too many people. But they are bigger and faster, I suppose. Guy and Brick ran together, too, and we were fairly certain they would make it back because Guy can "throw" Brick over fences, and he doesn't feel any concern about going in people's back yards. Rowen and Collin are small and not as fast, and I am old and not fast at all, so our winning seemed like a long shot.

Where we did have an advantage over the bigger kids was patience. Rowen and Collin were willing to follow my lead, and I was willing to have us hide for longer stretches of time, if necessary, especially as it allowed me to catch my breath. The boys, too. We ran from dark spot to large bush to next dark spot, hiding in yards off the street. We crouched behind a row of small hedge plants, along houses where there were dark spots, behind cars, and in unfenced backyards. We would wait as searchers drove past, not moving until more than one car had passed our hiding spot. We ran through sprinklers, avoided the yards with dogs, and tried not to activate motion sensor lights.

In the end, we won! While Guy and Brick made it back to the house by 10:00 and also beat the hunters, Team RoCoKa made it back first, with maybe ten or fifteen minutes to spare. Everyone was stunned, including me. Rowen and Collin were both super, super excited, thrilled that we won on their first time running. Everyone else got caught. I was tickled for our success.

Team RoCoKa

WINNERS!!!

While Rowen was happy to run with me and be on my team,

he was not super happy about my enthusiasm for this picture. 

He wouldn't cheer with me and Collin.

Even at six, he's way too cool to be silly.

This morning, I am less tickled by the fact that Ka can hardly move. My ankles and knees are sore. My feet are killing me. My quads are on fire. I could hardly get out of bed, the stairs are agony, and moving anything makes me wince. I clearly think I can still do all the things I did when I was 25, not remembering that I'm now, in fact, twice that old. The last time I ran was while playing Fugitive last year, and I forget that the pounding hurts. It's no wonder I bike. The sweet win, however, makes the pain slightly more bearable. 

If I'm going to run next year, I need to begin training several months in advance.