Running With Wheels

  I have the Nike+ thing which has a lot of cool features.  One is that my screen saver is connected to my workout program.  When I miss a workout or start to slack off my screen saver starts giving me a hard time.  This afternoon it accused me of being in a rut and tonight it called me a couch potato.  It was time to get back on the road and get some miles under my feet.

We finished dinner and I hurriedly put on my sneaks and grabbed the iPod.  About 300 feet away from home, I could hear a scream above the song cranking in my ears.  Being a mom to three lovely, yet insistent and will not be ignored children, has given me the ability to hear and know which one of my little cherubs is doing the bellowing through any other sounds.  I turned my head and saw Max barreling down the street on his scooter towards me.  He yelled, “I wanna come!”  I pointed out that I needed to go for 4 miles and that there was no way he could keep up with me on a scooter.  He told me that he could go back to the house and get his bike before I would even know it.  So I ran a few blocks, circled around and met him back at the house.

I ran with Max begrudgingly at first because frankly I don’t get much time alone and it tweaked my run a bit.  One, I was keeping a much quicker pace than I had originally intended (and wishing I’d waited longer for my dinner to settle), I wasn’t listening to my music, and I was doing a LOT more talking than I normally would.  

Max told me all about the games he and his best buddy Sam had played today.  They watched a Thundercats movie.   He pointed out the various cars that we passed.  We saw a monster truck.  Monster trucks are cool, right Mom? Can you put tires like that on your truck? We saw a Corvette.  Luc wants a Corvette.  Corvettes are stupid.  Do you think Corvettes are stupid? I would nod or grunt the shortest answers possible.  Every once in a while Max would pull over and wait for me.  He’d yell, “C’mon Mom!  Faster!”

I have been trying to keep up with Max since he became mobile.  I remember being very pregnant and trying to chase after my 2 year old Max on a tricycle yelling “slow down baby.. wait for mommy...”  The next summer he moved to the 2 wheeler with training wheels and the speed was too much for my mortal feet.  Max would lean forward, grimace, and pedal as fast as possible, occasionally crashing into fire hydrants or trees, but always yelling, “I’m Okay!” and jumping back up on the bike.  At the age of 4 he was riding without training wheels and using a skateboard ramp as a bike ramp.  Max and I used to bike together after dropping his little sister off at preschool.   We stopped at the store and bought a Hershey bar or two.  Max is 6 now and still one fast kid—but he has a lot more control on the bike and I don’t have to constantly yell, “slow down Max..” in total panic while we’re out. 

When I got home I was surprised to see that I had recorded a new “record” with my per mile pace.  I smiled.  The only reason I went as fast as I did was because I was trying to keep up with Max.  And I have a suspicion that I will spend my lifetime trying to keep up with him—if he’ll let me.