Turkey Trot

At Calvin's annual physical, his doctor asked him about the amount of exercise he got each day. Now, in the past we've been pretty lazy about this on a regular basis. We go hiking on a lot of our weekends, and some of our weekdays, and we'd go biking every now and again, but on a lot of our school days we didn't have structured exercise mixed in. When he asked us the same question last year, I realized that with homeschooling there was no gym class, and we started training for our local Holiday Hustle run. The first few runs he ran some and walked some, but when the race rolled around, after a month of running about 3 times a week, he finished in about a 10 minute mile.

But when the question about exercise came up this year, we were a little more prepared. Since Calvin learned to ride his bike sans training wheels this year, he would break up almost every fall school day with periodic rides around the neighborhood. And since he met the girl who lives next door and the two became fairly inseparable, he's spent almost every afternoon riding bikes or racing through our yards. His pediatrician listened to his answer this year and replied, "Oh, so you participate in the sport of RALAMM, then," which he explained gleefully to our blank stares meant "Roll Around Like A Mad Man."

And yes, I'd have to say that he does participate in that sport a lot these days. And between that, the regular biking, and the Parkour class he took weekly through our homeschooling group this year, when we started training for the one mile this year, he nailed it. The first time out he finished his mile in 10:30, no walking, and probably would have gone faster, but I was pacing him. We kept to a steady training schedule anyhow—on Sundays he and Jon biked 3 miles around Hudson Mills while I ran, and twice a week Calvin and I would run a mile together.

This year we're busy on Holiday Hustle day, so he signed up for the local Turkey Trot charity race instead—one mile around Hudson Mills trails—and the day for that was today.

Cold and rainy—not a perfect day, but not terrible like running in the Shamrock Shuffle in several inches of wet, wet snow, either. To get my own run in for the day I started out from home intending to meet Jon and Calvin at the starting line, about 6.5 miles from our front door. Unfortunately I underestimated that distance by about a mile, so I missed his take off, but I did get there just in time to see him cross the finish line less than 9 minutes later.

Maybe next year we'll sign him up for the 5k.

A first race

Last spring it was his first soccer team, and now it's his first race. We've been running together. Our neighborhood has a one mile outer loop that has been perfect for starting out. I found that to be true when I restarted my hobby after Calvin was born, jogging that pushing an increasingly heavy toddler in front of me. The first time I went out without the baby in the stroller I found myself running an unexpected pace and feeling surprising light. And now, here I am taking that same short path with that same toddler running along beside me, not so much a toddler anymore. Strangely, it doesn't feel poignant, only fun.

So we prepared together through the past few months, slowly adding distance and cutting time, until we were ready and the day for his first race was here. I had, foolishly, expected it to be warmer. Last year I was swealtering at the finish and wishing I had worn shorts. This year we were huddled in the warming tent before starting, but the weather failed to deter us or our cheering section. Calvin finished his first 1 mile race in a respectful 10:13, and I finished my first 3K of the year (a little late, I know) in a pleasing ~27:30. 

And then we joined our cheering section at Aubrey's for pizza.

The best medal of all

And another good intention bites the dust.

Early this morning runners from all over the area lined up at the school around the corner and took to the streets to run 13.1 miles into Ann Arbor. Running Dexter-Ann Arbor half marathon was a goal I set for myself at the beginning of the year. It was to be my longest run ever, my first half marathon. 

Unfortunately, after months of hard training, I found myself sidelined by a nagging hip injury, and I ended up spending this morning at home with a cup of coffee, being challenged by no more than my own feelings of anger, frustration and defeat. Yesterday, after Calvin's recital, we stopped by the expo to pick up my runner's packet. I'd paid for it, after all, and it came with a t-shirt. Up until that point I'd been feeling disappointed in myself, but seeing my name up on the board and holding my "half marathon" bib number in hand launched me straight into hearbreak. I actually cried on the way home. 

But even though I didn't run the race, my family reminded me that I had won just the same. I had trained, met all my goals leading up to the event, and proved to myself that I could do more than I'd ever thought myself capable of, and for that I earned the best medal of all: I'm proud of myself.

December 01

December came on with a blast today. Strangely enough, neither the post-Thanksgiving dates, nor the cold weather, had helped bring on a sense of Christmas, but today's festivities moved things along a bit.  I've been working a lot over the past two weeks, with Calvin's help, to prepare for a special holiday book sale at the library, and Calvin's been looking forward to Santa for a week. Today was the culmination of both our hard work and our hard wishing. The book sale at the library, which was a great success, had me busy all day, while Calvin and Jon started decorating at home and located a Victorian Santa at the manor house in our little village. Following the sale the boys cheered me on in a holiday charity 5k.

So it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas around here, but today's balmy, foggy weather still doesn't look like the white holiday we're hoping for. Thankfully we have a few more weeks to wish and hope. All I want for Christmas? Snowflakes.

Photography by Calvin

Photography by Calvin

Photography by Calvin

Photography by Calvin

Fall splendor

Fall is my favorite time to run outside—the temperatures are perfect, the colors beautiful. When I get to run outside I take a route into town that, for the lack of sidewalks, goes through the cemetery. The cemetery is vivid with the colors of fall and on each trip through it I've promised myself that I'd come back later with a camera and a kid (preferably mine). Today I finally kept that promise. Fall is so beautiful.