Runner Girl

Due to some shenanigans on Twitter over the weekend, I’m reinvesting in my various blogs with the goal of more frequent, shorter posts. (See my professional blog for details.) Here’s a quick post on a January highlight…

I’ve mentioned here before that the eight-year-old and I like to go running from time to time. I’ve been a runner for several years; she’s taken it up more recently. Last fall, one of my students was on the Vanderbilt cross country team. She told me that she played a lot of soccer when she was younger, then figured out it wasn’t soccer she liked as much as running. I suspect my eight-year-old is on a similar track. She’s crazy about soccer, but, as I found out at the end of January, even crazier about running.

Back in December, I told Lily about the Zoo Run Run, a family-friendly 5K at the Nashville Zoo, with a course that covers the usual zoo trails as well as some that are usually off-limits to visitors. She loves to run. She loves the zoo. Why not do both at once?  We had gone running together a few times, covering as much as two miles with a mix of running and walking. I figured with a little training, we could handle a 5K (just over three miles), even if we had to walk a good portion of it. So I signed us up and planned a couple of training runs over our very mild winter break.

The first training run went pretty well. She got a cramp about a mile in, so it was mostly walking, but that’s what training is for, right? When we tried again in January, she completely refused to run. The weather was great — mid 50s and sunny — but she kept saying she couldn’t run. It was mysterious, and a little bit frustrating, but I figured that she hadn’t had recess in two weeks, so maybe she was out of practice. I told her that I wouldn’t make her train or do the Zoo Run Run if she didn’t want to. At that point, I figured the 5K wouldn’t happen, or that we would go, and then walk the whole thing.

Then, the day before the Zoo Run Run, Nashville gets hit with its biggest snowfall since the 80s. The girls and I have a fantastic time in the snow, sledding, throwing snowballs, building a tiny little snowwoman (I grew up in South Carolina, so my snowman game is weak), sledding again, sledding some more. So much fun, especially for Lily, who was the only one of us with head-to-toe snow gear. Given the eight inches of snow on the ground that Saturday, the Nashville Zoo naturally postponed the Zoo Run Run, rescheduling it for the following weekend.

This being Tennessee, by Monday afternoon the snow had melted and I went running (by myself) in 55-degree weather. The forecast for the following Saturday was 60s and sunny. I couldn’t believe our luck! Even if we walked the whole 5K, it would be a great day for a walk around the zoo.

Our luck didn’t hold, however.

Thursday, I picked Lily up from after care at her school, like usual. She ran across the cafeteria to give me one of her attack hugs (combining two of her favorite activities: running and hugs), then slumped in my arms. The attack hug had used the last of her energy. She was tired, she had a mild fever, and she had a sore throat. An hour later we got the news from the nurse at the walk-in clinic: That was the fastest positive strep test she had ever seen. So much for going running two days later.

Or so I thought.

Thank goodness for antibiotics.

Lily started her antibiotics Thursday night. By Saturday morning, she was feeling great. I picked her up from her mom’s house, we both got changed into our running gear at my house, then we headed to the zoo. It was just about as crowded as I’ve ever seen the zoo, second only to their annual Easter ExtravaganZoo. (I’m pretty sure that’s what they call it. If not, they should.) There were tons of people there, all ready to run. Lily was skipping with excitement for her first 5K.

I have to backtrack a little here. Back in December, when I signed us up for the Zoo Run Run, I opted not to pay the extra six bucks for timing chips. (These are the RFID tags you attach to your shoe or your shirt that allows the race organizers to give you an official time for the race.) I figured that this was Lily’s first 5K, that we were going to walk a lot of it, that I didn’t want her worrying about her time, that I just wanted us to go and have fun together. It seemed like the right move at the time. The afternoon of the race, I briefly pondered getting timing chips, but, no, she’s been sick, we haven’t trained much, let’s just have fun.

What I didn’t know was that my daughter is a cheetah.

That girl ran the entire first kilometer. After that, she took some walk breaks, but she was determined to move her body as fast as she could. She would walk for a bit, then sprint for a while, then take a walk break, then sprint again. She wouldn’t give me any warning, either. We would be walking (on the right, as instructed), then she would just take off (moving to the left, also as instructed), leaving me in her dust. Lily just loves to run. She likes to go as fast as her legs will carry her. We stopped for a photo op with the flamingos, sure, but other than that, she was moving.

Maybe my favorite moment was right near the end of the race. We came out of the zoo entrance/exit, and Lily said to me, “Daddy, I think I need to stop and catch my breath.” She took maybe four paces at walking speed, then we rounded a corner and she spotted the finish line. She took off like a bullet!

After the race, she was all smiles. She kept joking “I can’t feel my legs!” while we sat and munched on our bananas and granola bars. I couldn’t have been prouder of her, and I was thrilled that we got to have such a good time together.

That timing chip? Well, as we were recovering from our run, we watched the award ceremony. The three fastest girls ages 9 and under were announced, along with their times. When the announcer said the third place finisher’s time, I checked my RunKeeper app on my phone. Lily had run a faster race! Had I dropped the six bucks on timing chips for us, she would have come in third place! She would have gotten to stand on the podium and had her photo taken by the zoo photographer!

I learned my lesson. For our next race, I’m getting the timing chips. And there will be a next race. After I apologized to Lily for not getting the timing chips this time around, we spend a little while later that afternoon looking at upcoming 5Ks around Nashville.

I can’t wait to go running with my little cheetah again.