The Fun of It

Yesterday, my seven year old daughter, Rosie, asked me if we could go for a run.  She's never suggested this and typically she gets tired after about a half a mile walk, so I did not take her very seriously.  I suggested she ride her scooter and I'd walk beside her into town.  But, that's not what she meant.  "I want to go for a run, like you do - a real run."  So, this was different.  I decided to roll with it.  We both got our sneakers on and some running clothes; a collared shirt and velour pants for her, but hey, whatever works.  Then we were off.  After about 3 minutes, I looked over and she had this fantastic ear to ear grin.  She was bouncing up and down, looking behind her, looking at me, taking it all in.  Then, she said, "mom, I'm liking this."  We took 2 breaks to walk a bit, but made it into town with no complaints, running and chatting the whole way.  I could feel the pride she was exuding.  We then decided to have lunch, not something I normally would do when I am halfway through a run, but she is seven and my rules don't apply.  At this point, I assumed she'd want to walk home or hop in the stroller that my husband had brought down with my four year old, but not a chance.  She was running back.  We made it into a race with the others and she laughed and waved back to them all the way up a half mile hill and back to our neighborhood.  This run was such an amazing one for so many reasons.  First, I had such an incredible bonding moment with my daughter.  This was unlike anything we've done together.  She knows running is something I love and she wanted to feel it and understand it, and share it with me, which was so awesome.   But, more importantly, I noticed this: she was having so much fun, she didn't focus for a second on how hard she was working.  And this pretty much sums up what I love about running.  I know running is work and it's always really hard and for some, it's a lot of other things, both good and bad.  But, for me, and clearly for Rosie, it's so much fun the rest doesn't seem to matter.

Listen to this:
Wired - I Break Horses