All week, I had been receiving emails about race day. One week to go. Your race day guide. Everything you need to know for race weekend. My clothes were laid out, and I was ready to go. There was only one small problem: I was running a different race.

Rather than running the St. George Marathon, I traded 26.2 miles in for the one-mile Tagalong Trot hosted by the Girl Scouts of West Central Florida. It wasn’t the race I planned to run, but it turned out to be the right race for my favorite running partner and me.

On race morning, I woke my daughter up at 7 a.m. to quickly get dressed and eat breakfast. An 8:45 a.m. race start is perfect when so many children are part of the race. My dad was running the Thin Mint Sprint 5K that started at 7:30 a.m., so I was hustling to get us there in time to see him finish.

Baby rUnladylike chose that moment to prove to me that she truly lives up to her unladylike roots.

It was right then that she decided to have a poop explosion. We’re talking a blowout of massive proportions. One that required us to go directly into the bathtub. One that required us to immediately start a load of laundry the minute we were done in the tub. And one that had put us about 15 minutes behind schedule. Once we were all cleaned up and fed, we headed to the race.

I parked the car, strapped Baby rUnladylike into her running stroller and sprinted about a half-mile with her to the 5K course. We arrived just in time to see the leaders come through the 2-mile mark, later followed by my dad who looked like he was in a swim meet rather than a road race. You’ve gotta love Florida’s fall running scene: 80 degrees and 95 percent humidity.

Baby rUnladylike agrees the 5K medals were pretty cool!

We met my dad at the finish line and then explored the race area in the 35 minutes we had before our one-mile Tagalong Trot began. The race is located on the water, so our warm-up included watching the sunrise and walking along the boardwalk.

Finally, it was go time. Although I knew I’d be running faster than most of the crowd, I lined up further back since I had the stroller.

For the first 300 to 400 meters of the race, we were trapped behind the large crowd of walkers and small jogging children. Once I had some space and clearer road ahead of me, I took off. I glanced down at my watch a few times which said we were running around a 6:15-30 pace. As we rounded the corner with the finish line in sight, I sprinted until I was just a few yards from the finish line. Then I stopped. I let Baby rUnladylike out of the stroller, and she crossed the finish line on her own. Our total time for the mile was 7:45. We added an additional 30 seconds onto our time for the final 0.05 portion.

The volunteers gave Baby rUnladylike her own medal. But she was far more impressed by getting to eat a banana and and orange slice after the race.

The Girl Scouts of West Central Florida put on such a great race. The Thin Mint Sprint (and Tagalong Trot) has become one of my favorite local events (you can see my race recap from last year at eight months postpartum here). They also give out the best medals I’ve ever received. This year, the race raised $30,000 to support young girls. Baby rUnladylike and I look forward to supporting this race and our local Girl Scouts for many years to come.

If you have ever run a race pushing a stroller, tell us about it. What is the coolest medal you’ve ever received from a race?