This past month I have been training my not so little
anymore girl. She is coming back from a
knee injury during last year’s soccer season.
I have run many races and have had a lot of fun in the past
by myself. Running with my daughter
dwarfs all of them. Whether it was my
marathon in St Louis, or running a Half-Marathon in South Korea, the ability to
run with her is a greater feeling.
This past month we have run three 5Ks together. Her first one with a 95 degree heat index she
hit the finish line at 34 minutes and was mad.
How many people actually get mad finishing a “fun run”? Probably more than a few, but this is my
daughter and my story.
It is said that sometimes to get a good story across you
have to flash back to the beginning, hit the middle and sometimes go back and
forth in order to get the point across.
Do not worry I will not do that.
When she was the ripe old age of 9 she ran her first 5K and hit a sub 30
minute race. This opened our eyes to a
talent neither of us had as a child. She
has gone on to run many 5Ks since then.
She is 15 now and has a PR of 26 which she stopped to walk in Korea
because she was “bored”. This of course
made me mad but I did not crush her so she would hate running. Instead I used the reverse psychology of
telling her she could have won if she did not walk. This was working until she got hurt playing
soccer last year. Then the rehab of a
knee came. I never had to deal with a
leg rehab so did not know how to help her.
She helped herself and started using her tool box of
parachute runs, ladders, box jumps and cones.
Her dedication inspires me to do better.
I asked her if she wanted to try a 5K again and with a little apprehension
she said yes. Now she is overly
motivated and wants to keep getting better.
As we went to the starting line today for Ellie’s Run For
Africa she was focused and nervous. I
could see it in her eyes. Just four
weeks ago she ran a 34 and was angry.
Now she was focused and had a pretty tough course ahead of her. As we lined up we thought of an afternoon 5K
a couple weeks ago the Queen City Road Race in Clarksville. We ran that one in pretty hot temps as entire
family and she hit ran to the 30 minute mark.
(again she was angry)
We stood there and were waiting for the start. She was not smiling at all just
determined.
We listened as the pre-race speeches were made and the race
was blessed with a prayer. Then the gun
went off. Oh wait it was an
accident. So we all laid back and waited
again. It was now time as the gun went
off we shot forward and gave it our best.
The first .9 miles was 90 % uphill followed by a rolling run through
music row in the Gulch neighborhood of Nashville. The hills beat up her knee but not so bad she
was hurting. We passed the two mile mark
and she was still pumping it out. We
crossed over the highway towards the Frist museum and she had pain in her
eyes. She had to walk for a bit. I said fine and like a good dad started
running again. She looked up and ran
with me. We lost valuable seconds there
but I felt I needed to help her push. We
came to the last two turns and you could hear the African Drums playing, she
started pumping her arms and running as hard as she can. This was when I finally told her what her
time was. She rounded the final turn and
pumped to home in 29:02.
In one month she shaved 5 minutes off a 5K time using just
self determination. I am very proud of
her.
