3 Sisters 7 Days

Okay, I confess. I am very easily influenced. I’d been meaning to include the kids in my regular running schedule for a while, but it took reading Christopher McDougall’s Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen to motivate me sufficiently to get them out of bed, off the couch, and out the door first thing in the morning. If McDougall is right, my progeny will not only be more fit, but will also be better people – more mentally and physically capable of accomplishing their goals, as well as more likely to do so cooperatively and with due consideration to those who support them.

According to my five-year-old, Olivia, they are also destined to be future Olympians.

Unlike her older siblings, Olivia has yet to participate in an organized race; however, she does race me to every other light post along the .8-mile route around our neighborhood park that makes up the first segment of my warm-up. Yesterday, as we finished our final race and passed the last light post before the playground (where I leave the the “little kids” to wait for their older siblings to walk them home after finishing their run), Olivia got my attention by turning to stop right in front of me…and nearly tripping me.

She paused a moment to catch her breath and then said, “Mommy, when I go to the ‘lympics, I don’t think I’ll be a runner; I think I’ll ride my bike…it will be pink and have ‘ribbons’ on the handles…and I will be SO fast!”

What could I say but “Of course you will, Livy”?

Tags: benefits of running, running with children

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 at 1:49 am and is filed under Mothering, Family Life, and Children, Running, True Tales of a Real Life Super Mom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.