Now that the weather has cooled a bit, Gilbert has resumed taking the boys on an occasional run around the block.  It used to be Andrew taking cat-like dashes between bits of walking and Josiah and Daddy trudging along until the last curve back to the house where the boys make a last dash.  Including the start back up the cul-de-sac, the loop is still under a mile and the unofficial record for the "long" (as opposed to the direct one not going to the end of the street) run was about 8.5 minutes.

On Sept 6, Andrew started out in front as usual, then stopped because he said his foot itched.  Josiah slipped into the lead and kept a steady pace, passing the house from across the street at the usual 1 minute mark.  Usually, Andrew would have a burst to catch up but this day he didn't have it, which usually would mean a slower overall pace.  However, Josiah didn't give up and easily came in first in 8:18.

The following Saturday, Andrew again took the lead and didn't lose any time looking over his shoulder as he often did,  just hearing the sound behind him.  As we came on the home stretch where we turn from Penn to 9th Ave before the last turn into 9th Place, he started an early finishing kick and left Josiah and Gilbert behind waiting for him to fade.  The result was another 10 seconds off to 8:08.

On the 20th, Gilbert mentioned that the record had been broken two weeks in a row.  That inspired Josiah to say, "Let's smash the record" to Andrew.  It was a cooler day, with a bit of a breeze.  The cul-de-sac was run in about :48 seconds and everyone kept a brisk pace.  At about the same spot as the previous week, the boys both went into high gear with Josiah in the lead.  Gilbert kept on cruising and beat the old record, comfortably less than 8 minutes.  However, he was dead last as Andrew had just edged out Josiah to touch the house in 7:32, both finishing about a minute faster than either had done a month earlier.