Michael Wardian: First Training Run with Kids and Training Partners May 12
Hope all is well with you and you had a nice weekend.
I had an incredible weekend and got to have a nice family outing with my two little guys and my B.O.B. Revolution Duallie.
For Mother’s Day–well, the Saturday before Mother’s Day weekend; on Sunday, I raced a half marathon, so that was fun–I took the boys to a training run with four of my training partners, starting at the Iwo Jima Memorial in Arlington, Va.
We all arrived at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. (Actually, I was a tad late as getting both the boys ready, changed, diapers loaded, food loaded, shoes, on, hats on, etc…took longer than I thought. I have to give my wife major kudos for always being so efficient with them and me.) I wasn’t sure exactly how far I could go with the guys in the B.O.B. before they got bored, cried or just decided this was not fun anymore.
Pierce, my older at almost 3 years old, has a lot of experience in the jog stroller, but Grant, our younger (almost 5 months and strong like an ox) does not, so I was hoping for 1 hour of solid running with some friends and my kids, and the best of all my wife, Jennifer, would get the morning to herself to relax, sleep, have some coffee, take a shower, whatever.
Well, the run was terrific and the kids were great. Pierce was shy at first, but by the end he was handing out snacks (cereal) to everyone and giving a running commentary of the sights we were seeing (Washington Monument, White House, “That is where Barack lives,” Air & Space Museum; What is that guy? If you haven’t run on the National Mall before you would be surprised how many statues there are). Grant fell asleep and stayed asleep for the majority of the run, so that was fantastic.
My friends and I had to figure out how to run together as I had a bit of “baggage” with the stroller and I didn’t want to clip anyone but eventually we figured it out. (It’s kind of like at the track when you are running with guys and you have to figure out the other person’s stride so you don’t clip their feet in the pack.) So the run was most enjoyable.
I have to thank those guys for letting me tag along and being good enough friends to be OK with a guy running with them with a jog stroller. (We did get some funny looks.)
I am so lucky to have such a great group of guys and girls to train with, and I hope to include my little ones on future runs, as this one was a huge success.
Anyhow, it was a really nice experience–we got in 61 minutes and the exact course we intended to run–and I hope it might make you consider trying something similar.
Have a great day and talk to you soon.