Down Time

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Ahhh... I've sent the trainee to lunch. I am not quite sure why, because she is going to go home sick here after my lunch. I guess because I'm not ready to go to lunch quite yet. She's a talker... not kidding, worse than me, those who know me personally, know that it is impressive for someone to "out talk" me. It isn't surfacy chit chat, it is deep down this is my life story and medical history to boot... so yeah... it is nice for a few minutes of quiet. Ahhhh...
So last night was another round of the kids cross country race series. My eldest and youngest toed the line... he's nine she's four. She got gun shy before the start and decided not to do it. I decided that next time we won't show up so early. She had been running around "playing" race for almost 45 minutes before it started, so by "go" time she was done with it... oh well, live and learn. But my son went through the first loop by hisself, helping a girl from the younger group. They ran it all together rather than one heat with the little kids followed by a heat of the big kids. They just had the little kids go through the finish "chute" after their one lap.
But anyway... my son, while no offical results have been released, has set a PR for himself of over one minute. He was getting down on himself saying "I'll probably finish last, again." I said don't worry about that, we're just here to run faster than last time. He struggled a bit with the distance again. I just reiterated that he needed to do some running between races so it didn't feel so hard. He said he wanted to be a runner, but he didn't realize it wouldn't be easy... hmmmm wouldn't there be more runners if it were easy? I remember trying to learn to play the guitar at his age. I wanted to just pick it up and be able to play it perfectly without practice and one lesson. I got discouraged fast. I know where he is coming from, but hopefully he will see my continued efforts and realize that is what is needed.... by the way, no I don't play the guitar :-)

As for me, my shin splints are bothering me. I've not run the past few days... now I realize that maybe it was a good idea to take the days off. I took them off because of laziness and bad scheduling, but now I'm taking ibuprofen now and my shins feel good. I'll run tonight, since it is just an easy run with some 100 meter pickups at the end. I'll take my son out for part of it so he gets some running in too.

Dorkness OUT! (for now) the trainee should be back soon and I'm going to go and find some food, again!