the beginning…

Feb 7, 2012

I have always hated running. I get absolutely no pleasure from running. I have never had a runner’s high or caught my second wind and I have had plenty of chances to do so. My dad was a runner and we entered races all the time, which I invariably won because I am fast and strong and competitive to the max, but I didn’t love it. I loved winning, but not running. I ran track in high school (mostly because it was a way to go on trips every weekend and get out of school on Fridays) and did quite well, but once again, it was not in any way enjoyable. It’s not that I don’t like exercise. I am quite athletic and as an almost forty year old can still play sports with the best of them. I love riding my bike and will ride for miles, but running has always seemed liked drudgery. ALWAYS.

So, now I have a daughter, Keziah, who wants to be a runner. She doesn’t want to just run, she wants to run a lot and BE a runner. This is posing some challenges for me. I don’t want my hatred-of-all-things-running to rub off on her AND I can’t let her run alone, so this running obsession is going to change me. I can feel it. I am going to start running with her because someone has to and I love her enough to have that someone be me.

Just the thought of it is discomfiting.

She has done four triathlons in the past couple of years and LOVED them.

But now she wants to step it up and get serious. She wants to run and run and run and not just dilly-dally around.

Today is our first day. We have pulled up a variety of training schedules and she picked the one she likes best (which is NOT the one I liked best, the one that had us start running for only thirty seconds at a time). We also pulled up some warm-up routines and stretching information and I think we have a plan in place. Right now my brain is full to the brim with all the differing opinions on static vs. dynamic stretching, music vs. no music, stretching vs. no stretching, rest vs. no rest, cross-training vs. rest, supportive shoes vs. minimalist, miles vs. time, youth bones not being strong enough to run seriously, how much is too much for anyone under 16, how puberty plays into bone development, injuries and injury prevention.

One part of me is terrified of making a wrong choice and injuring her through my lack of knowledge and another part of me thinks “Can’t we just run already?” and a third part of me is super excited for this new adventure and hope she has the guts and the determination to really BE a runner and then the fourth part of me wants to start a running club and get all sorts of kids involved and make it amazingly fun, healthy, and life-changing for everyone I know.

Yes, I am that crazy.

I think for now, we will go walk and run and walk and run and walk and run and see how we do.