Me and the Boy

Throwback Thursday - A brief recap of the Ottawa Race Weekend 5k that my son and I ran together this spring. It's on my mind because we recently received a mailer from RunOttawa reminding us of the race (and our times)... Which prompted Reid to ask if we were going to do it again.
 

One of the things on my bucket list was to run a 5k with my oldest son. This was a ‘short term’ item, since in a few years he’ll hit his teens and who knows if he’ll be interested in running at all… Let alone running with his dad.

This past weekend was the perfect situation. It was Ottawa Race Weekend, with a 2k, 5k, 10k and a half and full marathon on tap. I thought it might be fun to run there, as part of the Canada 150 celebration. Even cooler would be if Reid wanted to do it too. When I asked him, his response was exactly what I wanted, an enthusiastic ‘Definitely!’ As any parent knows, enthusiasm from your child is great. An indifferent ‘Yeah, ok’ can have varying meanings, from ‘not really’, to ‘I’m not listening, I just want you to stop talking’ to ‘Yes, for sure’. But I had my answer and I signed us up.

I created a training plan for Reid and he followed it, for the most part. He isn’t one for running outside in the rain, so that was a bit of a challenge. But train he did. Fitness wise, he was ready.

On race day, he was excited and that excitement carried over to me too. He talked non-stop on the bus ride down to the start area. And the day was nice, so no worries about the weather. (I carried water with me, in case he got overheated). Everything was going to plan. Until I realized there was one thing I hadn’t planned on… the crowd.

When we got to the starting corral, it started to fill up. The 5k had nearly 9000 runners in it and Reid was overwhelmed. I often forget that I have a different perspective on things, since I’m tall enough to see over the bulk of the crowd. Reid was surrounded and to him, it was like they were closing in. So, he had a bit of a panic attack about 5 minutes before the gun went off. This is something I should have thought about, because I used to be like that.

When I was his age (and even into my twenties), I would get extremely nervous and sick to my stomach before major events. I completely tanked one of my first job interviews because of that. I ended up dropping out of races in public school because I had a target placing that I had to hit during the run. I likely would have done that easily, but the requirement psyched me out. I could go on, but the point is: I could get so stressed out that I ruined whatever event I was about to do.

So in the last 5 minutes before the start, I worked on calming him down. Relaying my experiences having similar reactions. And trying to give him something to put this into perspective. I try to use a combination of things, from “I’ll regret it more if I don’t try”, to “What’s the worst that could happen?” But I know this is a personal thing, that he’ll have to work out. When I finally got him to work out what was wrong (Claustrophobia, and afraid to be trampled if he fell), I got him to work out the chances that would happen. And by the time the horn sounded for our corral, he had mostly calmed down.

I won’t say he was back to normal, but he was functioning. So we ran. I let him dictate the pace. When he had to walk (or more, he wanted to walk… he could have run the whole thing, I’m sure), we walked. When he needed water, I gave him water. We walked, ran, talked and joked the entire course. We waved to friends I knew on the side lines. We high-fived some young kids. And we had a blast.

Was it the what I expected? No. Was it a great experience? Damn right! Crossing the finish line with him was a great thrill for both of us. Reid brings it up now and again and wants to do it next year as well. I’m not sure if we will or not. I’ll do another race with him, but maybe something smaller, that he’ll enjoy more. The next fun adventure will be the two of us deciding which one.