One Mile With My Boy

Today was a scheduled rest day.  However, my 6 year old was acting quite wild in the house this morning - especially with his soon-to-be 3 year old brother.  He constantly asks to run with me and my wife - but he wants nothing to do with me when I'm soaked with sweat coming back from a run.

This morning was my big chance!

I asked him if he wanted to go out for a run and he LOVED the idea!  We both quickly changed, laced up our running shoes (OK, his sneakers and my running shoes) and we were out the door.

He recently joined the Running Club at his school, so he is learning how to pace himself.  A few months ago he would have darted off and then walked and then darted off again.  Today, we settled into a slow pace and headed off towards the lake.

My goal was to make it to the lake (about 1/2 mile) and back.  As we approached our synagogue building - about 1/4 of a mile into the run - he wanted to stop and walk.  We were going uphill and he said he started to hurt.  I knew that he wasn't really in pain - it was just starting to get uncomfortable.  I pushed him a bit - told him not to walk but we can run a bit slower until we get over the hill...then it will be easier.

We finally got to the top of the hill and started to recover on the downhill.  He started to get in a rhythm again!  Off to the lake we go!!!

We got to where we could see the lake.  I knew that this was about where the 1/2 mile point was.  I was ready to turn back, but he wanted to keep on going.  ALRIGHTY!!!!

We continued along the path next to the lake for another tenth of a mile.  It started to go uphill again slightly, so my son finally said he was ready to turn around and go back.

He was also ready to walk.  He wanted to count to 100 before we ran again.  I said 30.  He said, "How about 90?".  I answered, "How about 25?"  His response - "OK...let's do 30."

As we were walking, a man from the neighborhood who was out for a walk stopped us.  He said that we reminded him of the runs he used to take with his son, and that he was impressed with how far my son was able to run at such a young age.  He also said that his son is now running Track and Field at Princeton!  (I'm not convinced that my son will ever be a standout runner and good enough to run at a Division 1 University...but I can dream, right???)

On the way back home, we did stop for 3 walking breaks.  Counting to 30 at the first two before starting to run and 20 for the final one.  Of course, once we hit our block of houses came the final sprint home - just like you would expect from a six year old!

I measured our run on the Gmap-Pedometer this evening and it ends up we went out 0.6 miles - so 1.2 miles round trip.  It was most likely the slowest run of the year for me...and perhaps one of the most enjoyable!