5 And A Beagle
"Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans." John Lennon
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Run-day
This past Sunday I ran (and I use that word loosely) in the city's annual 10K 'Fun Run'. The company that I work for sponsors any employees that want to participate, and I've been chugging along for the past 7 or so years.
The first year that I registered I talked my neighbour Lori, into filling in for a fellow employee that wasn't able to go. She was reluctant, worrying that she'd be the last across the line. Well we weren't the last across and there was such a sense of accomplishment that we (she) was keen to keep running. That was in 1998 I believe and since then, Lori has run in two marathons and she can climb the local mountain trail faster than a jack-rabbit. I created a running monster - which is a good thing. Unfortunately, her zeal for all things fitness did not rub off on me. I hop on the treadmill at the local gym about a month before the annual race and try to get in enough shape to better my previous year's run. I was mildly pleased with my results this year considering I had run on said treadmill all of two times in the week leading up to Sunday and I managed to run(jog) 90% of the course.
I asked my son to put together a CD for me to listen to and the music might have been an inspiring factor. It was full of U2 (which I love), but the final tracks were Green Day. How can you not run(jog) to the heavy drum beats of 'Holiday', 'American Idiot' and 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams'? Plus I've got the volume up so loud, so as to drown out my inner voice telling me "Okay, enough running, time to walk for a while." So I did the 10K in a respectable (?) 78 minutes.
My 15 year old daughter and her friend accompanied me for the second year. We make plans to meet at a certain spot in the stadium after the race and head off at our own pace. Let me just mention that this is the daughter that can out run anyone in our family in the 100m or 200m sprints. Kris and her older brother were racing once and she was poised to beat him. So what did he do . . . what any threatened older sibling would do . . . he stuck his elbow out to block her. Unfortunately, he also knocked out her front tooth. Now that happened when they were 3 and 6, but she's never let that little incident slow her down. She's always placed in the top 6 in her age group in the district track and field finals and just has a natural stride. All of that having been said - I waited for quite some time in the stadium and when they finally arrived all smiles, I asked what took so long. "Well," my daughter said with a chuckle, "You can't run with a coffee in your hand. It'll slosh down the front of your shirt." "A coffee!!!" "Sure." she said, "It was raining and we were cold and there was a coffee shop along the route." So with warm drinks in hand, they strolled the 10K for a time of 2 hours, 6 minutes. But hey, at least they got more exercise than their average Sunday morning.
I hope to get some pictures up of my newly blocked scarves, but this Saturday the elementary school is having it's annual Spring Fair. I get to co-ordinate the prizes for the games and decorate a couple of the rooms. It's always fun to shop and spend money when it's not your own. It should be a fun time, but another busy weekend.
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The first year that I registered I talked my neighbour Lori, into filling in for a fellow employee that wasn't able to go. She was reluctant, worrying that she'd be the last across the line. Well we weren't the last across and there was such a sense of accomplishment that we (she) was keen to keep running. That was in 1998 I believe and since then, Lori has run in two marathons and she can climb the local mountain trail faster than a jack-rabbit. I created a running monster - which is a good thing. Unfortunately, her zeal for all things fitness did not rub off on me. I hop on the treadmill at the local gym about a month before the annual race and try to get in enough shape to better my previous year's run. I was mildly pleased with my results this year considering I had run on said treadmill all of two times in the week leading up to Sunday and I managed to run(jog) 90% of the course.
I asked my son to put together a CD for me to listen to and the music might have been an inspiring factor. It was full of U2 (which I love), but the final tracks were Green Day. How can you not run(jog) to the heavy drum beats of 'Holiday', 'American Idiot' and 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams'? Plus I've got the volume up so loud, so as to drown out my inner voice telling me "Okay, enough running, time to walk for a while." So I did the 10K in a respectable (?) 78 minutes.
My 15 year old daughter and her friend accompanied me for the second year. We make plans to meet at a certain spot in the stadium after the race and head off at our own pace. Let me just mention that this is the daughter that can out run anyone in our family in the 100m or 200m sprints. Kris and her older brother were racing once and she was poised to beat him. So what did he do . . . what any threatened older sibling would do . . . he stuck his elbow out to block her. Unfortunately, he also knocked out her front tooth. Now that happened when they were 3 and 6, but she's never let that little incident slow her down. She's always placed in the top 6 in her age group in the district track and field finals and just has a natural stride. All of that having been said - I waited for quite some time in the stadium and when they finally arrived all smiles, I asked what took so long. "Well," my daughter said with a chuckle, "You can't run with a coffee in your hand. It'll slosh down the front of your shirt." "A coffee!!!" "Sure." she said, "It was raining and we were cold and there was a coffee shop along the route." So with warm drinks in hand, they strolled the 10K for a time of 2 hours, 6 minutes. But hey, at least they got more exercise than their average Sunday morning.
I hope to get some pictures up of my newly blocked scarves, but this Saturday the elementary school is having it's annual Spring Fair. I get to co-ordinate the prizes for the games and decorate a couple of the rooms. It's always fun to shop and spend money when it's not your own. It should be a fun time, but another busy weekend.
Labels: Sun Run
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