RELYING ON RYLAND
It's almost time for the Silicon Labs Austin Marathon Relay. This is a family event. Start and finish at the same place so that you can take care of your kids when you aren't running. But Ryland's family have gone a leg further. They're RELYING on RELAY-RUNNING RYLAND. Whew!!
- Carol Goodrow
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 8-year old Ryland is ready to go. He will be a full-fledged part of the family relay team at this year's Silicon Labs Austin Marathon Relay. Not only will he be around to cheer on his family members, he'll be running a 5-K leg of the relay. And how have his parents made sure that he will be ready? Here is an interview to tell you all about it.
WHY WE LOVE THIS EVENT
The relay legs all start and finish at the same spot. This way, family members take turns running the event and enjoying the activities, food, and entertainment with their children while they wait to run.
 INTERVIEW
KR: Tell us about your family? What do you do to stay fit?
FAMILY: Our family maintains an active lifestyle by running, biking, hiking, swimming, and enjoying the outdoors. No matter what age, Ryland has been along with us on most of our outdoor activities. If we are going on a long run for marathon or triathlon training, he joins us on his bike. If we are training at the track with our triathlon training team, T3, (www.austint3.com) he is doing part of the workout with us. As a family we stay fit by staying active together no matter what we might be training towards.
KR: How did Ryland become involved in running?
FAMILY: Ryland first became involved in running by participating in Marathon Kids while we were training for the Austin Marathon. He would accompany us on shorter runs to earn his mileage towards his Marathon Kids objectives.
KR: Besides running, what else does Ryland do to exercise?
FAMILY: Ryland swims with the Lost Creek development team, and recently participated in their summer swim team the Cruisers. (www.lostcreekaquatics.com) Ryland also plays Academy Soccer with AUCSC. (www.austinsoccer.org) Ryland rides his bike on the trail and on the road. He is proud that he has accompanied us on some of our longer marathon training runs. Ryland goes on hikes and walks with us. He also enjoys time running around with his friends like most 8 year old boys.
KR: Has he participated in any fun runs or competitions?
FAMILY: He has participated in some of the local area kids' duathlons and triathlons.
KR: What fitness goals does Ryland have?
FAMILY: Ryland would like to do a lot of triathlons, and continue to improve on his running biking and swimming. Some time in the future Ryland would like to be first place at a triathlon.
KR: How does your family work out together?
FAMILY: We swim together, run together and Ryland gets plenty of bike riding in while we run longer distances.
KR: What else does your family do to maintain a healthy lifestyle?
FAMILY: We maintain a healthy diet to help fuel all this activity and avoid illness and injury.
KR: How are you training for this marathon relay as a family?
FAMILY: We do our training with T3, which is mostly a triathlon training group. As the triathlon season comes to a close though the team focuses more on training for many of the Austin area running events. As a family we will focus on working with Ryland at the team track workouts to make sure he is ready to run his 5k leg of the marathon.
KR: Who all will be participating in this relay? Who is running which leg?
FAMILY: Ryland (5K), Stephanie Quirk (5k), Christopher Quirk (11K), Tom Bressie (11K), Lindsey Clements (10K).
KR: Any advice to other parents or families looking to get into shape or start running?
FAMILY: Just get out there and get active. No matter what age your children are, they have more energy than us adults and are more than excited to spend time with us parents. Eating healthy will follow along with getting active.
A bit more: The relay benefits Junior Achievement of Central Texas which teaches children financial literacy skills and the importance of staying in school. JA brings members of the business community into grade school classrooms across the Austin area to help educate our children and build leadership skills.
DATE: September 21, 2008
WHERE: Auditorium Shores, Austin, Texas
LINKS
Web site:
austinmarathonrelay.com/
E-mail: archanar@waggeneredstrom.com for more information.
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