Getting the Family Involved

When I first had to set the running shoes aside due to this injury, I was in a really bad place mentally. I had recently finished my first marathon, had run the Ragnar Relay last July (already injured) and was planning on training for my first 50k in October, followed by my first 50 miler a couple of weeks ago. Having to not only shelve those plans, but to stop running since November brought out a bunch of negative thoughts. It has literally taken months to change my outlook and attitude.

Now that I'm doing short run/walk sessions, I hope I'll be able to at least participate in a few races this year. I know, however, that truly racing them will be out of the question.

I have two daughters — one almost 12, and one 9-year old. The older one ran cross-country last fall and is currently running track (although as a 6th-grader, she's unable to run in all but one meet). My youngest plays basketball, but also enjoys running. You may remember that I ran a 2-mile fun-run with my oldest last November (my last run until my recent run/walks), in which she won her age group. Both girls routinely outrun nearly all other kids in the respective PE classes.

I had a lot of fun pacing my oldest last fall, but I know that if I was in top condition, I'd rather be running my own pace at nearly every race. So, since I have kids interested in running, and I can't currently push myself, what better opportunity to plan a couple of family-centric races! We'll all (maybe even my wife) run a local 5k in July, then we'll once again run that fun-run in November. My kids are really looking forward to it, and I'm thankful for the opportunity to do it with them, instead of being somewhat selfish and seeing what I can do, personally. Besides, it won't be too many years until both of them leave me in the dust anyway!

Sometimes we need to focus on turning lemons into lemonade. I admit I'm not good at it, but every once in a while I somehow get it done.