Mile run –
Fall is in the air, school is in full swing and that makes it time for the mile run in gym class. Wait a minute, you ask, there is still gym class? Why of course there is, it is an elective, kids have to choose to be active these days, there is no requirement. And, I have active kids who know it is important to keep moving and both ELECTED to have gym class.
Not only did they elect to have gym class, they chose the full year option instead of just a semester. I didn’t even have to tell them to! I don’t like that it is not required any longer and my kids know this well and they chose to do it. I was very happy about that.
But, yesterday was their mile run. Now, we try to do ‘fun runs’ with them every year. We don’t make them run on a regular basis. My youngest doesn’t enjoy running at all. My oldest is starting to really enjoy it but hasn’t found herself wanting to fully commit to it. My husband and I run regularly still. So, when the mile run comes up, we are always very curious about how committed they were to it.
My youngest has always done it in the maximum allowed time! Ok, not really. Even when she doesn’t try, she does a little better than that. But, every time she has done the mile run, she will have some reason she stopped. Once it was someone lost something on the track so she had to stop to help look for it. Once it was someone wasn’t a runner and she just wanted to help them finish. Once she said she wasn’t feeling good. It’s always something. I just roll my eyes at her and tell her she needs to do it for herself every once in a while instead of always helping everyone else.
It’s a fine line with her. I don’t always know how to approach her. She actually will ALWAYS put herself aside to help someone else. And that’s such a great and rare quality these days that it’s hard to figure out how to approach her on it when she is struggling for herself to help someone else. It stresses her out a lot.
This year, she did the mile in 9:15 with no excuses though. She ran (and walked) but didn’t give herself an excuse other than the fact that she doesn’t like running. That’s a huge step for her. I was satisfied!
My oldest has always enjoyed the fun runs we do. She’s always tried on her mile runs at school. She now wants to do a half marathon so she’s really starting to get into it. Last year she broke 9 minutes for the first time so she was curious what she was really capable of this year. And she texted me right after her run to let me know that she did it in 8:15. Now, she did admit to walking once still but ‘only for a second’. I was quite proud of her for that. She’s got a long way to go to be competitive with it, but that’s just picking up and running without any practices or training so, I’m pretty impressed.
I’ve been trying to talk both my kids into doing track. They are both volleyball players first (otherwise I would try to talk them into cross-country as well) and I think I just might be able to get one of them in!
Fall is in the air, school is in full swing and that makes it time for the mile run in gym class. Wait a minute, you ask, there is still gym class? Why of course there is, it is an elective, kids have to choose to be active these days, there is no requirement. And, I have active kids who know it is important to keep moving and both ELECTED to have gym class.
Not only did they elect to have gym class, they chose the full year option instead of just a semester. I didn’t even have to tell them to! I don’t like that it is not required any longer and my kids know this well and they chose to do it. I was very happy about that.
But, yesterday was their mile run. Now, we try to do ‘fun runs’ with them every year. We don’t make them run on a regular basis. My youngest doesn’t enjoy running at all. My oldest is starting to really enjoy it but hasn’t found herself wanting to fully commit to it. My husband and I run regularly still. So, when the mile run comes up, we are always very curious about how committed they were to it.
My youngest has always done it in the maximum allowed time! Ok, not really. Even when she doesn’t try, she does a little better than that. But, every time she has done the mile run, she will have some reason she stopped. Once it was someone lost something on the track so she had to stop to help look for it. Once it was someone wasn’t a runner and she just wanted to help them finish. Once she said she wasn’t feeling good. It’s always something. I just roll my eyes at her and tell her she needs to do it for herself every once in a while instead of always helping everyone else.
It’s a fine line with her. I don’t always know how to approach her. She actually will ALWAYS put herself aside to help someone else. And that’s such a great and rare quality these days that it’s hard to figure out how to approach her on it when she is struggling for herself to help someone else. It stresses her out a lot.
This year, she did the mile in 9:15 with no excuses though. She ran (and walked) but didn’t give herself an excuse other than the fact that she doesn’t like running. That’s a huge step for her. I was satisfied!
My oldest has always enjoyed the fun runs we do. She’s always tried on her mile runs at school. She now wants to do a half marathon so she’s really starting to get into it. Last year she broke 9 minutes for the first time so she was curious what she was really capable of this year. And she texted me right after her run to let me know that she did it in 8:15. Now, she did admit to walking once still but ‘only for a second’. I was quite proud of her for that. She’s got a long way to go to be competitive with it, but that’s just picking up and running without any practices or training so, I’m pretty impressed.
I’ve been trying to talk both my kids into doing track. They are both volleyball players first (otherwise I would try to talk them into cross-country as well) and I think I just might be able to get one of them in!