Once upon a time, back in 2013, I wrote this blog post.
The kids are watching… and that’s a good thing.
Let’s all take a moment to marvel at how small my kid was…
And how huge is he now…
Why yes, I AM feeling a little verklempt.
Anyway, nearly a year ago, Lucas told me that he had a dream of running over a bridge. I told him the possibility of that was real; Cooper Norcross Run the Bridge is an event that happens every year here in South Jersey.
The only catch (for him)? It’s a 10k distance. Until that point, the longest he’d raced was a 5k.
Something you should know about my son is when he sets his mind to something, he’s going to do it. Therefore, when he said he was going to run the Ben Franklin Bridge, I knew it was going to happen. We registered him for the race as soon as registration opened in May.
And then? Then we started to prepare. In April we ran the Atlantic City 7k together.
We did shorter distances throughout the summer and focused on strength training.
Once September rolled around we crept our way up in mileage. From 4 to 5 to 6, and then finally during our last training run 6.2.
He has the tendency to go out too fast and then feel crappy the second half of his run. When introducing a longer distance, I encouraged him stick with me the first time so he wouldn’t get down on himself.
Once he was comfortable with the distance, off he went. Leaving me in the dust.
That’s okay though, because he was running this race solo.
Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that earlier? I ran the Mushroom Cap Half Relay on Saturday and I knew my legs were not going to want to run the next day.
And I knew that he’d be ready for it. And he was.
My 14 year old (baby) was going to run the bridge and live his dream!
I recently saw this quote on Facebook: “Prepare your kids for the road, not the road for your kids.”
Granted, it might not have been meant to take this literally but there we go.
I’ve been running for nearly 9 years now, most of his life, and it fills my heart with joy that we share this together.
Next up we’re doing the Tin Man 5k this weekend and the Philly Marathon Rothman 8k the following weekend. Who will be see there?
Loved this…..your boy is special……just like his Mom!
Thanks so much, Jean! He is pretty amazing – I love sharing this with him.