The Running Bug.. it is contagious.

This running thing must be contagious.  My daughter caught the bug and ran her first official 5k at the Shoppers Drug Mart Run for Women a couple of weeks ago.   My youngest son has been Walking for his health for months and recently started throwing a few run intervals in there.  And now my oldest son has jumped on the bandwagon.  He has been going to the gym for  a few months doing various cardio including treadmill running.  His biggest challenge has been to arrange childcare so that he can to the gym but he solved that problem last week.  He put the child in a stroller and went for a Walk / run.

It went well. He didn’t die. The baby loved it. It is win/win. Everyone was happy. I promised him that I would take them to the park on Saturday and run with them.  Rain or Shine. He balked and said No Way to running in the rain.

Saturday dawned overcast with light rain.  I assumed the run would be rescheduled, but my phone rang at 7 am.  Run was on, and we were leaving in a half hour. Sigh…

To my surprise my daughter left her warm bed to accompany us.  I can only assume that her bed was warm… I wasn’t actually in her bed, but mine was warm so I assume that hers was too.

The plan was 5k.  Son wanted to do 2 minute Run / Walk intervals to complete 5k in less than 50 minutes. The rain wasn’t bad. We got wet but not drenched and it wasn’t terribly cold. At the 4k mark we realized that we were not going to hit our Target unless we modified our Interval plan so we opted for 2 minute Run  / 1 minute Walk.  I decided to stop for a Pee and paused my  Garmin to give him a bonus break. Then we pushed hard and finished in 49:33!  What a tremendous accomplishment!

I am so proud of all three of my children for learning to run.  It is a tough thing to do. Right now they are at the hardest part…. the beginning,  where it is easier to relapse and go back to the Couch part.   Fortunately they inherited my stubbornness  which should serve them well as they continue to follow in my footsteps… literally.

Cheers!