Will he even like running?

When you have a child you want everything to be perfect for them.  A lot of the time, especially early on, most of the decisions will be made by you.  It starts with baby food and diapers, then goes to clothes and the right kindergarten and grade school.  Then come the teenage years and LOOK OUT!  It is at this time you find out if you’ve made good choices.  But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself.

One of the early decision YOU have to make is what sport do you think he or she will like?  You have to be careful here because you don’t want to been seen as pushing them into something you may have been trying long ago but failed and now you’re living vicariously through them.  I myself settled on distance running because it seemed obvious to me long ago that my professional rugby career was probably not going to happen.  When my son noticed I was going out for long runs without him he asked to go along and the spark was lit!  We started slow and for shorter distances but eventually we found ourselves training for a half marathon.  It was a spring event so the bulk of the miles were done in winter conditions.  He did well and even though he was still in grade school he said he wanted to pursue this in school.   We signed him up for cross country and I quickly lost my position as coach and was relegated to the station of ordinary father (but still a running consultant).

Fast Forward…

Time has past and now he is preparing to graduate from college.  I was right about my rugby career and his running in grade school and high school went well.  I think we made the right decision.  He learned a lot and so did I.  His lessons were in perseverance, hard work, respect for your coach, your teammates and your competitors, which are all important things he will need going into his professional life.  I learned the importance of being hands off (a hard one!).  He needed to find his own way and see if this was something HE wanted not just to make his mother and me happy. This is now his sport, one that will be with him the rest of his life.   My only wish is that in the future, when he is an Antiquated Runner, he looks back with a smile on his first coach and the training we did in the winter for his first half marathon.