The envelope was wet and slightly buckled when her son handed it to her before quickly running off again.
“My mouth just dropped,” Cynthia Oliver said of the way her son, Trevor Harris, delivered her birthday card.
But Oliver wasn’t complaining. It was actually a touching and memorable moment. After all, it’s not every day your son runs five miles non-stop and takes time in the middle of a major race to make a special delivery.
Harris, who lives in Conception Bay South, was competing in the Tely 10 road race Sunday morning when, at the halfway point in Mount Pearl on Topsail Road, he veered toward his mother to hand her the birthday card, kissed her on the cheek and continued to run.
“He ran five miles with that card in his hand,” said Oliver, who travelled to St. John’s from her home in Burnt Point to see her son run. “I didn’t expect it at all.”
Oliver’s shock could be seen in a photo snapped by her niece at the moment Harris gave her the card.
“He’s a sweet, sweet boy,” Oliver said of her son. “God bless him for doing that.”
Harris — running in his fourth Tely 10 — said he had planned well before the race to give her the card along the route.
“She comes to watch me every year and she stands in the same spot,” he said. “The Tely 10 usually hovers around the time of her birthday, but this one was right on the day of her birthday. I was going to be away on the morning of her birthday, so I felt bad about it.”
He said running five miles with the card in his hand wasn’t that tough as long as he kept rotating it from hand to hand. He tried to keep it dry, but it got a little wet when he grabbed cups of water at stations along the way.
“She had no idea what I had in my hand, she was so focused on taking pictures,” he said, laughing. “She was pretty entertained by (the card).”
The special delivery to his mom didn’t slow him down much. Harris achieved his goal of finishing the race under 80 minutes. He crossed the finish line in a time of 79 minutes and 30 seconds.
The family celebrated Oliver’s birthday with a boat ride and barbecue later in the day, but Harris said it was important that he do it for his mother during the race.
“I run triathlons and other races and she goes to every single one of them,” he said. “She’s a great mom.”
Twitter: TelyRosie
