Search This Blog

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Running Advice from a 10-Year-Old

As I have mentioned before, it seems my teeny, long-legged oldest daughter was born to run. When I took her to running group with me for the first time about a year and a half ago, she was nine years old and ran two miles without stopping at about an 11:30 min/mile pace. Now I don't know about you, but that was FAR more than I was capable of doing without several weeks of training.

She runs like a girl. Try to keep up. 
I thought maybe her first running experience was a fluke, but she proved me wrong. Within a couple of weeks, she was running three miles at an even faster pace and went on to run her first 5K a few months later at a 9:30 min/mile pace. A year later, she ran that same race at a minute per mile faster.

She frequently wows the newbies at running group as she flies past them while keeping up with the quicker group of adults. Sometimes she has better running days than I do and stays a couple feet ahead of me, turning to tell me to hurry up with a smirk on her face. I can only wish that I had her natural-born talent.

Last week while she jabbered on about how much she enjoys running and how proud she is of how much she has improved while busting out four miles like it's nothing, I asked her what she has learned. Her response was so simple and organic that I've mulled it around in my head like a mantra for the last week, wondering why I allow my personal running goals to be so complicated at times.
"Just go do it,"
and,
"Be your best."
With that, she shrugged her shoulders like it was nothing and kept racing ahead of me in the cold, dark evening.

As her parent, I can only hope she keeps that beautiful perspective as she continues to do what she loves.

No comments:

Post a Comment