And I've been working at getting my Heathens hooked up with my "dealer" as well, to varying degrees of success.
Hello, my name is Momma. And I'm a runner. And I'm pushing running on my Heathens at every opportunity I can. And I have the full support of the Asst. Zookeeper in this endeavor.
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| Heathen #2's FIRST award in running! |
While my Heathens are not completely ungraceful, none of them are sprinters and I wasn't either. We are the people who are barely out of breath long after the sprinters are finished.
Today, the Heathens were all registered for a 5K Run/Walk - as runners. We went as a family. It's exciting and they always leave feeling they have accomplished something valuable.
Heathen #1, who been up all night with scouts, made one mile and crawled himself to the sidelines. I wasn't surprised. While he does well with water, land kills him. They are opposing forces. Despite his willingness to go, he has yet to cross the finish line unless it is a "fun run" that involves colored powder, down, mud, or some other element to distract him from the actual distance he is covering.
Heathen #3 ran with us as long as his little 9.5 year old legs could go, then walked. He knew that I would continue to pass him (loop shaped course) and that as soon as I finished the race, I would find him and we would finish his race together.
Heathen #2 is my running buddy. I let him set the pace and stayed behind him. I'll admit that, having not seen my "dealer" lately, the pace he set was a good one and I struggled to keep up with him.
He would get a head of me and then I'd catch up because he needed to walk and catch his breath - but I never passed him the entire race. I did a lot of loud encouragement from behind him. Not sure whether it was helpful or embarrassing - but he never told me to be quiet, so we'll go with a positive impression.
As he rounded the last corner ahead of me, I saw him start to push hard. He was across the finish line before I even made it to the corner. He finished with a time of 28:52. Excellent for someone who does no distance running on a regular basis!
Once he went through the finishers' shoot, he was waiting to cheer me on to my own finish. And then continued to cheer on strangers. I smiled with a bit of pride
Doubling back through the course, I located Heathen #3 at the two mile mark and we finished his last mile together. It was mostly walking but I got him to run between a set of light posts and then walk the next set, alternating. And he ran the last 100 yards (which was on an incline) to put himself through the finishers' shoot. And Heathens #1 and #2 were both cheering for him as he crossed the line. I looked at the clock as it ticked and told him to run, he wanted to cross before it changed to 52 minutes. He crossed at 51:58 - and I saw how hard he pushed to do it. Again, a grin of pride crossed my face.
In their age group, Heathens #2 and #3 finished third and sixth, respectively. I managed third in my age group as well.
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| Accepting his ribbon! |
The Heathens did so well this morning. I was thrilled for everyone. We returned to the car tired but happy and feeling accomplished.
After stopping on the way home to run a few errands, the younger two Heathens came to find me. "Can we take the dogs for a walk with you?" We have three dogs and typically each take one. And we walk a 2.2 mile loop.
Sure, Heathens. Get the leashes and let's go. We haven't had enough exercise yet today. And out the door we went!
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