New Year's Day Peanut Butter Chip Chase 5K

For the past 29 years in This Tiny Town, the local Lions Club has organized a 5K foot race called the Peanut Butter Chip Chase. Some of you might know that The Man is a runner, so every year since we've lived here he has run in this race and done fairly well.

At the end of the race the organizers award medals to top finishers – overall and age groups. The medals are little plastic chocolate chip cookies on ribbons. The Man usually places in his age group.

One of the other prizes given is for the first Tiny Town resident to cross the finish line. This prize is not only a plastic cookie on a ribbon but also a large baked chocolate chip cookie about the size of a small pizza. The big cookie is home-made by another Tiny Town resident, so that's pretty cool. And guess who has won the big Tiny Town cookie since we've lived here. If you guess The Man, you would be correct.

The Man has been involved in a lot of races since we've moved here. At these events you tend to see the same people again and again and the P'nut Butter Chip Chase is no exception. During the past year we noticed that this little blonde girl has been entering a lot of these races. She's so small, she looks like she's 7 years old but she's really 10. And she's amazing. She can finish a 5K in about 27 minutes which means she is doing 9 minute miles which means she is going faster than 6 mpg which means she's better runner than most people. And all at 10 years old. And she's super cute! She's also got a 14 year old brother who is also an excellent runner.

So once again this morning, The Man won the big cookie. After he received it I saw The Little Runner Girl eyeing the cookie in such a way that she looked like a hungry little waif which was too adorable. He mother scolded her very lightly about eyeing the big cookie and sort of chuckled to us. As we were walking to the car this poor Little Runner Girl just couldn't keep her eyes off the cookie. At that point I said to The Man, "Should we give her the cookie?" I mean, we don't really need this big cookie. It's just a bunch of sugar, fat and calories we don't need. I figured it would probably give a kid more joy than it would give us. So The Man grabbed the big cookie and ran over to where The Little Runner Girl and her mom were getting into their car and offered it to them. He asked The Little Runner Girl, "Would you like this cookie?" And she shyly nodded her head yes. Too cute for words.