It was a cool afternoon on Wednesday – the type that is perfect for running.  Not much of a breeze, slight chill in the air, and damp.  It almost felt like late April, which is a whole other complaint.  However, we are supposed to swell into the 90’s this weekend so I’ll complain about the cool softly knowing I’ll be whining about the heat on Sunday.  At any rate, everything was set up for one glorious run.

At the outset of the race the pace was a little slow and quickly resulted in looking at the back of the pack.  However, there was a goal in mind, a pace was chosen, and now was not the time to get carried away trying to keep up with the cheetah’s.  So, around the track for the first time and everything is as it should be.  By the second trip around the track some of the blazers have lost a step and everyone is settling into a more steady pace.  At the end of lap three, with one to go, it is time for a gut check.  The pace that may have been to slow to start is now hard to maintain, this is really about accomplishing the goal and achieving something that didn’t seem possible.  With about 200 meters to go the wind, breath, and air seems to have evaporated, and now it is running in a vacuum – nothing, but guts for the final stretch.  Faster, Faster, Faster – pulling into 2nd place and blazing across the finish for the first compete mile in a race – 9 minutes flat!!! 

I ran over to Savannah to tell her how proud I was.  She had just finished her first competitive mile in 9 minutes flat.  She looked up at me and said “I don’t think I can breathe!”  I told put my arm around her, told her to hold her head up and back to let as much air in as possible while we walked it off.  In about 20 seconds she said “I did it Dad!”  I really don’t think I could have been more proud.  There were four schools out on the track that day with 50+ kids in the event.  Only 5 kids would run the mile and Savannah was one.  Among her age group and gender she was 2 out of 3.  There were two older boys who ran it as well, but they don’t count (more on them later).  All of that is really secondary to the fact that she set out to achieve the goal (run a mile in less then 10 minutes) and blew it away.  Just like her neurotic running Dad, as soon as she could catch her breath she wanted to know when we could start working on the 5k (coincidentally that would be tomorrow).  That was the sweetest mile I’ve ever been blessed enough to watch!

One quick gripe – to the little dweeb boys and the obnoxious parents who started yelling for the two older boys to lap the girls running SHUT UP!!!  Two things – 1. they all ran the mile together because they didn’t want to tie up the track for 30 minutes running all the different age groups – especially when only 5 kids were competing.  So, they weren’t competing against each other just sharing the track.  No wonder girls hate being around boys sometimes they are so obnoxious, and I had the first moment where, as a dad, I wanted to pound the crap out of some little boys – but had to be the adult.  2. That being said, to the parents who neither told there punk kids to shut it, and even more so to the ones cheering (yes cheering) for the boys to lap the girls – until you can get your butt around the track and keep up with the girls putting it all out there (at the age of 9 and 10) you can’t say a word.  SHUT IT!  Really this causes me to want to rant and rave like no other.  I can’t pound the little boys, but you mister three chin, suckin’ on a cigarette, and complaining about the lack of a comfortable chair guy that is a different story.  I’m not a big man, 5′7″ 138#, but I’m guessin’ on an open field as long as I don’t let him get a hold of me in the first 30 seconds he’s going to get a whoopin’ when he’s suckin’ air.  Just unexcusable.  Good thing my outspokin wife was at the other end of the track while this occured or I’m sure there would have been something explosive happening.

All right, I feel better – I didn’t end up in jail and even think I used the opportunity to teach our kids a valuable lesson.  I told Savannah after the race, when she asked me why some people cheered that way, that there would always be nimrod’s in the world.  She couldn’t always change them, but she could change how she responded to them.  Use it as motivation.  Now here is where I think there are some differences in gender or something about my kids in general.  Savannah said she wasn’t going to let them lap her next year, and really who cares what a couple of dumb boys do.  Joe said that he hopes he gets a chance to run next year so he can beat their…

Good day!