Jamie's Race for Jake's Heart.

 Jamie loves to run, and he's a pretty fast guy, so he was excited about the idea of running in a 2K kids race for the American Heart Association.   

He ran in honor of our friend Jake, who had a successful heart surgery two years ago and is now a healthy and strong four year old dude. 

It's not often when a ten year old can use his gifts and abilities to raise money for a good cause, and Jamie was proud of his role as the big kid money maker in this scenario. I helped him set up a fundraising page with the lofty financial goal of earning $999.

   Thanks to the generous support of friends and family he went over his goal and was able to donate $1420 to the American Heart Association in honor of young Jake Taylor. 

Which made him very proud and happy.

And also got his name on the Jumbotron in Fountain Square during the races, which was a very cool thing. 

(Even cooler...  Mr. Imwalle, his math teacher, saw his name in lights and mentioned in in class on Monday morning...fame amongst 4th grade class!)

 

The race was on Sunday, and it was a dreary day... cold and windy with a chance of rain/snow or sleet. Not ideal weather, but there was still a big turn out of kids with running shoes, ready to go.

Here is the homestretch of the race, Jamie is just under the 71 North to Columbus sign, and little Jake is to the right...you can just see the back of his green coat watching for Jamie.

And here he is crossing the finish line.

He really gave it his all once he caught sight of the finish line, turned on his speed jets and then collapsed in a lump of sprinters machismo just on the other side of it. 

The great thing about being ten is that your recovery time is brief. After a few minutes of rest and a long drink of water, Jamie was back in action, and quite pleased with himself. 

He began the race not sure if Jake would be able to be there because of the foul weather, and was delighted to see him at the finish line waiting for him. 

As the t-shirts say...

"You make my heart race."

I think that truer words can't be said when it comes to these two...

Well raced, Jake and Jamie.