Family Runs

I realize I haven't written in a long time.  I'll try to be better about that.  Life sometimes gets in the way of blogging.  OK...it doesn't, but I spend too much time doing things that don't matter and I really need to focus on what needs done.  But that's a whole other blog.  Today I want to talk about family runs.

Last Wednesday, I recruited my 9 year old son, Brady to go out on a 4 mile trail run with me.  He was so excited to go.  He is very athletic and loves to test himself, so this was good for him.  He has run a couple of 5Ks with me, but that is the furthest he had ever gone.  We headed out the door and made our way down to the trail...it's about 4/10s of a mile from my house.  He didn't really like running on the street because I kept having to call out car!  car!  and made sure he moved over to the grass.  He did enjoy the trail though.  He did really well.  I could tell he was getting a bit tired, so I said that we can stop at the end of the trail, it would be 3.6 miles and then just walk back up to the house, but he didn't want to do that.  He said "no, I want to finish."  There is a hill to go back up the the house from the trail.  It's a decent hill.  I coached him up it and he ran the whole thing.  When we got to the house, he was beat!  We ran 4 miles in 41:59.  I was so pleased with that time for us!  I had told him prior to running that I'd play catch with him when we got back.  After the run, he said he didn't want to play catch (surprising for him!) because he was done.  Several hours later, my daughter said "Is Brady sleeping?"  Sure enough, I went upstairs to check on him, and he was sound asleep...for 2 1/2 hours!  That run certainly wore him out!  But I was so proud of him!

Then on Saturday, I was supposed to run 5-6 miles.  I asked Brady if he wanted to come with me and he said he would as long as it was later in the day.  So I waited and waited...finally I said at close to 4pm...you're not coming with me, are you?  He said "No...sorry Momma."  I wasn't mad, just disappointed.  I was looking forward to a trail run, but don't go there alone, so I guess it was hitting the streets!  When I went to leave, I saw Kip and he asked where I was running.  I kind of whined about the streets and he told me to wait, he'd change and come with me.  Yippee!  We headed off to the trail.  We started off good, but about 2 miles in, Kip's hip flexor was hurting...changed our plan and slowed down, but it didn't help.  He told me to go ahead and he'd keep me in sight.  So I did.  We got in 4.45 miles.  He felt bad that he slowed me down, but I didn't care.  I was glad he offered to come with me so I could run the trail.

I love that my family comes with me.  Sometimes,  I just don't want to run alone.  It's nice to have company.  I often run around the culdesac when Nicholas is home because I can't leave him alone.  It gets boring.  So to change from the trail to the hilly streets to the treadmill to the flat culdesac, that's a good thing!  I love family runs!