Running and Jumping

Running is something I try and avoid. I am very aware that I have brother-in-laws who love to run and most of the people I know love to talk about fitness and exercise, but I don't enjoy 'working out'. I think when I was younger and playing sports and the thought of having a 9 to 5 was unimaginable I did like to run and exercise and lift weights (not too many though); but now a days it's just so boring. And honestly I really don't feel amazing if I do run and exercise and etc.
HOWEVER, this Saturday I broke the mold a little and participated with Jenn in Pat's Run.
Jenn has been trying to exercise and be in shape (she's the most beautiful lady I've ever know), and she actually did the run last year. So this year I said, "Sure I'll do it."
But little did I know that this run is over 4 miles long. I'm pretty sure the most I've ever run in my life was like a mile and a half, maybe two miles, but never 4 miles :-(
To be honest I was scared, and as most of you know hardly anything scares me! We get to the race nice and on time with Thomas and a jogging stroller (thanks Stewarts), and we are in the way back because the race rule is people with strollers or dogs have to start in the back. I am very happy with this rule because I'm not wanting all the serious runners to knock me over and we're in the back surrounded with other kids and strollers and it's like a parent party in the back.
So we're waiting and waiting for the race to begin, and then we hear cheering coming from behind us because the first running is coming around the corner and finishing. This dude's time was like 20 minutes, which divided by four means he's running a mile every 5 minutes, which I think is fast- obviously no one ran faster?
Finally our back of the race mob starts moving forward which is exciting because Jenn and I are like, "Oh yeah, here we go, time to run, ready to feel the burn, going push it." Or something like that.
Turns out we were so far in the back that we were surrounded by walkers. People walking side by side in front of us, and people walking side by side in front of them. Therefore the first mile and a half we're pretty much walking briskly. There were several stretches of the race where Jenn and I would be able to push Thomas and the stroller through some openings and run/jog for a while. And I will admit, I felt pretty darn fast running past all those walkers. I told Jenn that there can be two ways to be motivated while exercising.
1- You exercise with someone more fit than you and it helps escalate your performance.
2- You exercise with someone way less fit than you and it makes you feel so athletic and awesome.
These walkers on Saturday morning were in the #2 group. They were walking and talking and literally taking a stroll, while Jenn and I were jogging past them pushing our baby and thinking about how awesome we were compared to them. Don't worry, I can tell what you are thinking, "Don, it's not a race." BUT, this was a race, so we did run past people and I did want to scream out, "Out of the way molasses." But I didn't, Jenn and I were very polite and courteous, which probably explains our finishing time of 1:02. And yes, if you divide an hour into four parts, that's fifteen minutes a mile, which I don't think is Olympic speed just yet?

If you have an excellent memory, you might remember that this blog post is titled Running and Jumping, which brings us to the jumping. After our exhausting run, see running video below:



We all went out for some breakfast and then home for a nap (not much to tell there, actually just did). That afternoon we went to celebrate two birthdays, Gabriel (is 4), and Kiera (is 2). Because these two awesome kids are brother and sister and there birthdays are like super close together they had a joint party at Jump Street, and sadly the address was not 21.
This jump place is sort of like a warehouse filled with trampolines and kids are bouncing off the ways, literally. The party was actually a lot of fun because they had trampoline sections for big kids and sections for little kids. Considering Thomas is only 1, he tends to get run-over a lot when we are out at parks and places with lots of children.

Check out all the pictures we took from our busy Saturday of running and jumping.

April 2010