Last night, I took Tabby running with me (*jogging is a term runners normally eschew, however I used it in this case for the fun play-on-words). She is keen to run a race with me soon and I wanted to test her mettle a bit before I signed her up. Title 9K (actually 9.9 K or ~6 miles) is my next shorter race and she is allowed to be a part of it. However, even though she’s eager, I don’t want her to get out there, not be quite up to it and end up hating it.
I’ve talked before about cultivating a love of various activities in our kids. I would love it if my kids loved running, but more than anything, I don’t want them to hate running because I was too eager about it and pushed them too hard into it (or any of my other favorite activities).
Anyhow, so we went for a run. My goal was to get her through a mile, so we set off around our neighborhood which is mostly flat with some small hills. I had to keep holding her back from going too hard because whenever she did, she would tire out and then need a walk break. She took a fair few little walk breaks, but managed to finish the mile right around 14 minutes, which for her little legs seems pretty darn good to me. I think she could have kept going too.
I asked her if she thought she could do that five more times (how much she’d have to run for the T9K) and she said she thought she could on another day. I’m not signing us up quite yet, but I’m not ruling it out either!
I’m impressed! A 14 minute mile for her first run is pretty darn great! 🙂
That is awesome! My kids used to run a mile once a week. After they did that for several months they were racing 5ks. I remember Nathan’s first 5k at 6-years-old: 43 minutes (we were so excited). Now he runs them in 19. Keep up the good work and yeah, NO PRESSURE. Have fun!
It is good to hear from someone who’s been there. She is so excited to run with me and I just love it. I am going to look into some shorter races for her maybe this fall.