Fun Run--or Not

Today was the annual Fun Run at school.  It is a 5K that the whole school runs, even the kindergartners.  In preparation, during the month of April, the kids can do a "marathon in a month," running or walking 26.2 miles.  Brandt and Blythe brought home the forms at the end of March, and when I asked if they wanted to try it, they both firmly said, "No!"  As the Fun Run day has approached, both of them also told us that they didn't want to do it.  Brandt said, "I'm not going to do it," and Blythe, contrary to character, joined right in with him and said, "If he isn't doing it, I'm not either."

Kent and I told them they didn't have to run, but that it would be sad if they were the only two students in the whole school who didn't participate.  I signed up to run with Blythe and any of her fellow students who were in need of supervision, but I assured her that we didn't actually need to run.  Brandt wanted to not run with us too.

In the end, they both participated, but very reluctantly on Blythe's part.  She ran briefly at the beginning, but before we had gone very far, she was ready to walk and didn't feel like running the rest of the time.  Our next door neighbors had a dog who was always unhappy being taken out for a walk, and my dad would joke that they were taking the dog out for a drag.  That's sort of how I felt with Blythe.  I dragged her along, encouraging, suggesting we jog short distances ("Let's run to the next stop sign!"  "Let's run to that big tree!"  "Let's run for ten seconds!"), telling her how great she was doing.    It was mostly for not.  "No!" she would say.  "I don't want to," she would say.  "Will you carry me now?" she would say.  We had a classmate with us, Sofia, and she wasn't any better.  In fact, she wouldn't hold my hand so I could drag her along, and she would practice her slow walking, her non-feet moving walking, her tiny step taking inbetween sudden bursts of speed that would take her twenty feet in front of us only to move so slowly afterwards that we would pass her and have to wait while she caught up.  It was, to use another expression of my dads, the agony and the agony.

I pointed out what a beautiful day it was, how nice it was to be outside in the sunshine, and how fun to go to school to really go on a walk, telling myself as much as Blythe and Sofia, but they weren't having a good time.  Then about two-thirds of the way through the 5K, Blythe tripped and bruised her palms and knee.  I scooped her up to try and comfort her, then offered to give her a piggy-back ride for a bit.  At that point she said to me in all seriousness, "They should call this The Not So Fun Run."

We did make it to the finish and found Brandt there.  I hadn't seen him the whole run (except at the very beginning), but it turns out that he walked most of the way too, and only finished a short time before us.  Neither of my kids are runners.  They get that from me.  But it's okay.  We all got to be outside in the sunshine, we finished what we started, and maybe next year will be better.  Quite frankly, it couldn't be much worse.

Kindergarten Runners.

Lilly, Danny, Jack, Sofia, Ellen (behind Blythe), and Blythe

I was supposed to be in charge of Danny and Jack, but before we had even gotten out of the park,

they were so far ahead of me I couldn't see them.  

Fortunately, they made it back to school.

Brandt is stretching, getting ready for his run. 

Here are the results.

Brandt was 512, and Blythe was 538 of 574.

Yeah go team Barrus!