May 14th, 2010 – 4 Mile Run

The continued prayer is, “Lord keep me focused. Keep my mind stayed on You. Help me to bring You praise. I know You believe in me. Please help me in my unbelief. Amen.”


This one was an interesting run to say the least. When I went to pick my son up at the BGC I saw a lady jogging with her son who was ahead of her on his scooter. I thought that was the sweetest thing! This kid had to be 6 years old and I thought surely, my little dude could handle that if some crazy 6-year-old could, right?! While we were driving home, I saw the lady and her kid again and said, “Look, Babe. That little dude is working out with his mom. Would you like to do that with me sometime?” He was very excited about it because he had been wanting to get some practice in with his scooter and thought it would be great to hang out with me. Great! So it was a date! The next time I had a short run, I would take the boy and we would bond and have one of those Mother-Son relationships you only see in the movies. It was gonna be great!

Well, today was that day. I asked him if he was still up for it and he readily assented. I let him know that this was going to be an honest-to-goodness workout for Mom, so he would have to keep up and there could be no complaining. I’ve taken him on runs before. It has proven to be a highly effective disciplinary action when he nuts up at school. I figure: If he’s not going to do well in school, he’s going to do well in Boot Camp. Cuz come hell or high water, he’s getting’ outta my house after graduation. Solid parenting!

I figured this would be a much pleasanter experience because he would be on his scooter and I don’t run that fast so he would be able to keep up with me without any trouble. I told him if he was good and kept up with me, we could stop by Rocket Fizz to pick up some candy. So, I had given him a clear goal, told him how to do it and set up rewards for good behavior. Seriously, I should write a book on Parenting. We could be millionaires, right?

He was whining and complaining well before the half mile mark. He had already found himself behind me most of the way. I honestly don’t understand. HE’S ON A SCOOTER!!! He should be leaving me in the dust!

At the mile mark he is openly crying like I’m shooting him with salt rocks and I am thoroughly frustrated and completely annoyed because instead of getting a focused workout, I am having to play Drill Sergeant. Move! Move! Move! I am being as patient as I can because I know that the first half of this course is on a very slight incline but it’s not so bad that he should be weeping like he just watched “Extreme Make Over”.

We finally get to the half way mark and I can finally tell him that we are going home in answer to his “Waaaah….. I wanna go home!” statements. I also tell him that this is the easy part because it's on a slight decline. So now he is keeping in front of me for the most part and when the declines come I am coaching him to just ride it and keep his handle bars straight. Soon he is way ahead of me and has to stop at corners to wait for me before he crosses the street. Good boy!

We are at the 3 mile mark and Rocket Fizz is a half mile away. He’s been doing pretty well for the last 20 minutes or so, so I tell him we can still go, but he can only get one thing because of all of the incessant wailing at the beginning of this journey. So we roll into Rocket Fizz and he gets a pack of Bazooka Joe Bubble Gum and I get a pack of Now & Laters. I *love* Now & Laters. Reminds me of when I was a kid. We set out for the last half mile of the trip and while we are standing at a corner waiting for the light to change, he sees a friend of his from school in the car with his Mom. Well, this is great! They say “Hi” and wave then the light changes and I say, “Go! You wanna look like a big shot in front of your friend, right? All you gotta do is beat your Mom.” So the last half mile of the run was a bona fide sprint.

In the end, it was a fairly decent workout, I got to hang out with my boy and we both got some candy…. Not too shabby. I’m not sure that I’ll be taking him on a workout again any time real soon though. Guh!