Run Away

Morrigan's school started a running club with the intention of running a 5K in December. Now, I was as shocked as anyone could be that she wanted to join and in spite of needing absolutely no additional activities, I couldn't turn down her request for more physical activity. And I promised that anytime I could, I would come run with them on Thursdays. I run a couple of 5Ks a week so I don't really need to train per se but I wanted to encourage her.

My parents are here and willing to watch Maggie and Eion so yesterday Tim and I were both able to join her. They have the kids divided into groups loosely based on their speed and each group has one or two parents or teachers with it. Morrigan's group only needed one more chaperon so Tim ran with her while I was with another group. We had slightly different experiences.

My group was clearly the over-achievers. We were looping around Highland Park and the goal for the day was 2-3 laps which was somewhere in the neighborhood of 2.5 miles. My kids immediately decided they should run five laps. They asked me, "How fast can we run?" I said as long as I could keep up, they could go as fast as they wanted which translated into damn near my top speed with as few breaks as they could manage.

The goal of five laps was not enough and they added that they wanted to lap all the other groups. I am currently fighting a cold which was not at all helping my situation and made the running somewhat unpleasant. Mercifully, one boy fell and I got to take a break to get him a band aid. (Well not mercifully he fell - more mercifully I got a rest. You know what I mean.) But even that was short lived as he was devastated to have to quit early and he insisted on rejoining the runners. He and I finished essentially sprinting past another group.

Now Tim's group was another story. When we got home, I asked if he was going to shower. He said there was no need as he never broke a sweat. Seeing as I had just been killing myself, I was intrigued. Apparently, one member of his group was winded just walking to the start of the trail. From there, it was allot of walking, very little running and only then under duress and a great deal of complaining. Soundbites included:

"If I were a ninja, I would be able to run fast."

"You can't work an animal too hard or they'll quit."

"I would be a fast runner but I am too slow."

Tim and the other Dad spent the whole time goading them into running and setting goals like, "Let's just run to that sign 50 yards up." These were not the over-achievers. Having grown up playing ice hockey, baseball, football and just about every other sport, Tim didn't understand these kids at all but figured it looked like they were the ones who needed it the most and pressed on. The other Dad said he was just glad they ran some this week rather than walking the whole time.

While the sprinters were fun to run with, I think Morrigan was disappointed I was not with her on team lollygagger. Hopefully next week I can join her.