Leave It To Beaver's Mom

So every now and then one of my favorite running blogs, Skinny Runner, does a post highlighting her readers in a variety of ways. I was one of her featured readers when she shared our engagement story and a link to my blog! One of my favorite features is something she calls Crappy Reader Race Pics. I'm sure you can figure this one out, but readers submit crappy race photos of themselves for all to see and judge and enjoy a good giggle. Hang in there with me, this is going somewhere good!

My mom is my very own personal race photographer, she is always on the sidelines cheering, ringing the cow bell and snapping away on the camera. I have a love/hate relationship with any running photo taken of me. I never look like what I think I look like. I don't often get the chance to see the photos because she normally heads back to Syracuse and stores them on her computer.

I'm sure you've seen this oldie but goodie!

Let's go back in time to November when I am home visiting my parents in Syracuse. I had some time and decided to go through all of my running photos and save some on a jump drive to take home with me for nostalgia purposes. I was scrolling through the images and came across one from the Lilac Festival 5k that I ran with my dad last May. I busted out laughing at one photo that I don't even remember posing for. You may have already seen it on FaceBook:

This was actually from the 10k I ran after the 5k.

My mom and I got a good chuckle and I put it in my folder to save. I kept scrolling through the images and up came a horribly embarrassing, strangely awkward photo of myself with my dad. I gawked at the ridiculousness and said what a horrible photo it was. That is when my mom chimed in, white as a ghost, in all seriousness and said that she thought she had chosen that photo for the family Christmas card!!!!! I said there was no way on earth she could have chosen it, that my eyes are closed and that I look like a beaver. She said she thought it was the one she chose because it is not often that my dad and I are in photographs running together. I just kept saying no that she was crazy and that it was impossible and she just kept saying she was pretty sure it was. WHAT?!?!?! This when I called my dad over and he got a good look at beaver face and we both just couldn't believe it. Mom pulled up the Christmas card on the computer and low and behold that was the photo she had chosen to send to all of our family and their friends. Over 125 cards to be exact. My mom felt horrible and said that they were small thumbnails and she couldn't see my expression and that my eyes were closed. My dad and I just continued to mock her and make the beaver face.

What the heck was I thinking or saying or doing in this photo?!? For the next couple of races that my dad and I ran together we continued to make the beaver face for my mom as we passed her snapping away! We pretty much made the beaver face at any chance we could. Leave it to beaver's mom to completely embarrass you on the family Christmas card.

Ever have a particularly good or bad race photo taken?

Wanna share it? Email me: photo1999@aol.com