The Run-up to the Marathon

...to Every Generation

Last night I ran 3.5 miles with the kids. My daughter E ran with me the first 1.4 miles with me, and A ran the whole thing. It was a bit slower pace than normal, but I was ok with that since my legs are still not 100 percent from Saturday's long run.

It's fun for me to see the kids getting into running. I totally didn't expect them to want to run with me. But they started asking to run with me once around the block (.7 miles). My daughter, who is fairly athletic and very competitive, made it about a quarter mile the first time she tried. Since then she has worked her way up to twice around without stopping.

My son was the biggest surprise. He has always been a below average when it comes to sports. He has many talents, he's just not good at athletics and is not particularly competitive. At age 4 he was getting beat in running races by his 2 year old cousin. I found myself embarassed last summer when I found out he was slower than his sister (who is a year and a half younger than him).

When teenage boys think about who their kids will be, they imagine athletic superstars. I told myself I would work with my kids and train them to be great at the 3 big sports...basketball, baseball and football. But when A came along we never showed any interest or aptitude in sports. When I would throw him a ball he would never throw it back...instead he would turn 180 degrees and throw it in the opposite direction.

So when he asked to run with me a few months back I said "Sure" but I didn't expect much. But he really surprised me. "The Boy" ran 3 times around the block (2 miles) without stopping on his first try. The pace was not lightning, but it was not terrible. Since then we have run once or twice a week. A couple times we've run 4 miles together.

"The Boy" has demonstrated endurance in spite of his weird running style. I could quite put my finger on what was wrong, but it looked like he was shuffling his feet and his elbows were locked in close tho his body. Then "The Wife" clued me in...his stride was too short. So last night we worked on increasing his stride length. And boy did he fly!

After E stopped running "The Boy" and I had a Man-to-man talk. I told him how proud I was of him. I told him that I would love him even if he was in a wheel chair, and even if he wasn't good at music and math. I loved him because he is my boy. But I told him it was really cool for me to see him turning into an awesome runner, and that I'm really proud of him. It felt a little bit weird to say, but I was glad we had that talk.

Here are some pictures of the kids from the Earth Day 1K:

The Pre Race Stretch...