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Dad trains for marathon, child trains for 5-K
Hello KidsRunning.Com,
In the August issue of the Runner's World magazine. I read the "Ask Miles" column. The topic of discussion was how we race with our kids and how we encourage them to do it.
Last year, I was training myself to run my first marathon ever (in Niagara Falls). One day, when I went to the track to do my speed workout, my 6-year-old Oscar came along and ran a couple of laps with me. I marveled at how graciously and effortlessly he ran. So I encouraged him to train for a very famous race: the Oktoberfest 5-K and 10-K in Kitchener, Ontario. We were going to run the 5-K race.
We made a plan to run 3 times a week, increasing the distance little by little. Some days he was very enthusiastic, but some others his stomach ached, and others he preferred to play with his friends.
It is hard to make a 6-year-old child commit for 3 weeks to a training program. I have the feeling that for them, a 3-week commitment would be the equivalent to a 6 month commitment for us. However, I decided to go to his school and talked to his teacher about what he was going to do, and I asked her to spread the word at school. This put some positive pressure on Oscar, because he knew that he had to practice to finish the race since everyone at school was going to be paying attention and they were cheering for him.
The maximum distance that we ran during practice was 3 Km and that was painful for him. But he was enthusiastic.
Finally the day of the race arrived. I woke him up at 7 a.m., which was very early for him. He cried and said that he did not want to go. I talked to him and told him that he had put a lot of effort on his training, and that he should at least give it a shot. I told him that he was going to feel a great sense of satisfaction just by participating in the race. I convinced him and off we went to the race.
There were over 800 participants and there were a few kids running, but I am almost sure that Oscar was the youngest. Our plan was to run for 3 minutes and walk for one minute. It was a rainy day and the temperature was a chilly 38 degrees Fahrenheit. We lined up towards the end of the line and heard the gun to start the race. Oscar was getting desperate because we had to walk towards the starting line, but finally we crossed the starting line and we started to run. Since he was seeing a lot of people passing him, he wanted to run at a faster pace, but I held him back and told him to stay with his normal pace.
After the first 3 minutes I asked him if he wanted to stop and walk, but he said that he was fine, so we kept on running. At 5 minutes I asked him again, but he kept on going. Finally at about 7 minutes of running, he decided to walk. I told him that we were going to walk for a couple of minutes and then continue. However, Oscar noticed that the runners that we had passed along the way were now passing us, so he took a sip of Gatorade and told me to keep running because he did not want the people to pass him. We did only 2 more stops along the way and they did not last more than 30 seconds each.
With about 200 meters to go, he told me that he was very tired and that he wanted to stop. However, I showed him the finish line and, when he saw it, he made one final effort and sprinted towards his goal. The picture that I am attaching was taken just before the finish line in his final sprint. When we crossed the finish line I hugged him and I could not hold back the tears in my eyes. He had finished the race in 34:34 (a pace of 6.9 minutes per Km) and ahead of 200 other participants. This experience taught Oscar that you can achieve any goal in your life if you consciously prepare for it and if you put your heart on it. There are times when you share with your kids an experience that bonds you for life. This was one of them for me and Oscar.
A week later I ran my marathon. My goal was to make it in 3:55, and I did it in 3:36. When I crossed that finish line, I was very happy and proud of my effort and I had a lot of emotions inside of me, but it did not compare with the emotion that I felt when Oscar crossed the finish line at his 5-K "marathon".
Juan Cardenas
E-mail the editor at KidsRunning.Com with comments on this article. goodrow@infionline.net
