I’ve mentioned before that my oldest has run in track and cross country. Well, his younger sister is running cross country with him this summer. It’s been good for them to have this common interest and the goal of improving. My son has definitely gotten comfortable at the pace that he’s chosen. It’s easy for him, sure he doesn’t always love running, but he’s developed enough muscle memory for it that he gets into his rhythm and stays pretty consistent. My daughter, however, pushes herself just a little more than he does. Her natural pace is probably faster than his, and she responds to encouragement by trying a little harder too. Whereas he just continues on his way at the same pace, hardly acknowledging the cheering that we give him. They are totally both great kids, but the things that motivate them are definitely different!
All of this to say, while he was gone for a few days up in Wyoming for a youth activity with our church, she continued to attend cross country. The day that he went back to practice, I picked them up and he was walking slowly and looking quite tired–to be fair, he had had several days off. I asked if he was ok and my daughter proceeded to tell me that she passed him on their 3 mile run. When he realized she had passed him, he grumbled audibly and pushed past her. They kept the same pace for awhile until she pushed past him again. Again, he grumbled for her to hear and passed her. A third attempt was made by her, only to be met with extra effort on his part. He maintained the faster pace for the remainder of the run. He said, “That is the fastest that I have finished that route. I guess I need to have her running behind me to get me to go faster. Really, she should run behind me in every race!” Who knew that all I needed to do was to have my daughter run behind him to get him to push himself beyond his comfort zone? I was so pleased to hear the account from both of them as I could tell she loved bugging him and that he was happy to have been able to respond with a faster pace–a pace that he previously didn’t think he could maintain.
I began to wonder if my pace would improve from running with me daughter. Or if maybe there are other things I could do that I’ve just gotten too comfortable with not doing, but would bless my life.
If we want to do something that we’ve never done before than we have to do things differently than we’ve done before–even if that includes upping the competition. My son didn’t want his little sister beating him in running, so he pushed past what he originally thought he could do. Maybe that’s just what we need too. Maybe it’s asking someone to help keep us accountable in our goals, or starting earlier or later in the day. Maybe it’s writing them down and putting them where we can see them so we are reminded of what we are working toward.
Or maybe we just need a fast 12 year old to run behind us and cheer us on–if you need one, I’ve got one you can borrow!!
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Kayleen
