Running In The Rain....

This morning greeted us with snow.

Yup. Snow in OCTOBER. WTF?

Anyway.

P and I have a 5k tomorrow morning so we had been debating on which clothes to wear and eying the weather. For those who don't know, my daughter Parker (P) is seven and already an amazing athlete. Not because I push her (I wish she'd sit still or slow down just a little quite frankly) but because ever since she was born she has just had this urge to RUN and tumble.  Once she found her legs she would lap the giant center island of our kitchen over and over and over. 20, 30 minutes at a times. She'd just run and run. She may be the only child that when bored will run laps in the house. We have a long gallery of hardwood that's about 25 yards and many days I will hear her just start. She runs from one end, to the other....then back, then forth, then back. Etc. She makes me tired.

Last year, Captain Awesome and I were doing our first 5k together (wow, has it only been a year?) and he suggested we take P with us so she could do the 1k kid's run. We did and she nailed it in about 5 minutes and a few seconds. I was stunned. She LOVED it.

"More, Mommy! More!" she said.

So I signed her up for a one mile with me this past Spring. She polished it off in 7:31.

Wow.

THEN she wanted a 5k just like mommy because one mile was "a warm up" she said.

Okay.

So I let her run her first 5k in September. She nailed 31:08 as her first 5k time at age seven.

Wow.

I am in awe of her. I share this because I don't push her. I don't drag her out to run. I don't even ask her to. But if she even senses me easing towards my running shoes she is all over me, "I want to go, too! Take me! I want to run!"

So I do. Night gear with reflectors, she is on her SECOND pair of Vibram VFFs and has her first pair of Saucony's for when it's colder or damp. I even got her a Road ID like mine.

So....this morning I asked her, "Do you want to run in the snow and do a gear clothing shoe check for tomorrow's race?"

I really hoped she'd say, "No".

But she burst into a smile and RAN to get dressed.

Sigh.

I showed her how to layer and we talked about the difference running in weather and she insisted on the VFFs so I let her walk out the front door in them and get halfway down the drive in them in the slush and the sleet then asked if she wanted to go back and switch shoes....she did. lol

BUT she did not want to quit. Even though, I confess, I did.

Shoe change and back out we went.

I grew concerned because the drive and street was pretty slushy and all it would take was one good slip to take one or both of us out. We warmed up with a walk and my knee twinged and said, "I swear to Nike that if you run on me in this shit I will totally fuck your ass up. Understand?"

I understood.

I told her that mommy was going to just walk this one but she could run it out (we have this set of loops so I will sort of set her off like a boomerang so she comes back to me in loops so I can see her at all times and yell if there is a car coming).

I let her run after I told her to keep it slow and careful.

Then, off she went. Slow. Careful. Deliberate. This slight little one. All of 39-42 pounds depending on how much pizza she eats the night before. Thin but solid muscle from running, gym workouts with her kids training class and gymnastics team. She was in little black running pants and layered with a long sleeve technical shirt, a fleece, and her LL Bean Windbreaker over it all due to the rain snow mix. Hood up....she ran that little run so careful (she can run like a Kenyan when the weather is good) and I just stopped (my knee said to) and watched her loop. She looked like a miniature version of an Olympian runner. Plodding along. Rain and sleet is hammering down and she just trots along, head down, smiling.  She had insisted on testing the run with her red devil tail since tomorrow is a Halloween theme costume run and so the little red devil tail with a poof of bright red feather boa peeks out from under her rain jacket.

Wow.

What a moment.

She looped back to me and was smiling and asked if there was an icicle on her nose. I told her that was snot and we both laughed. I told her mommy wanted to stop and I was worried about us slipping and getting hurt before tomorrow. She confessed she had splashed in a huge puddle and her feet were now soaked and cold. I suggested home and a hot shower and she agreed.

So we did.

We didn't run very far. I didn't run at all. She made one loop.

But that was such a moment to see her, head down, running.... Not because I made her or told her or pushed her.

Because she simply loves to and wanted to and enjoyed it. I'll never forget that little blue hooded figure with the little red devil tail poking out behind it wagging as she dashed off away from me.  That's my little girl.

We are showered and have some plans for today and as I typed this she started to run laps from the front door to the back of the sun room. Back and forth, back and forth.

I don't tell her not to run in the house....because I am glad she can and does.