One of my coworkers in the social studies department is also the cross country coach for our school. I asked his advice for getting Tucker running more.
Tucker is a ball of energy; as far as athletics go, he loves two things: swimming and running.
My coworker suggested that we sign Tucker up for a Kid K (aka a fun run) to see how he formally liked running. After a little digging, I found the perfect run to start Tucker with. The Dino Dash, hosted by our local natural history museum. The cost was minimal and Tucker got a cool T-shirt and a race bib.
We had had Tucker taking science classes at the museum for about a year and a half, so he was very excited to learn that he would be participating in a fun run there.
A lot of the fun runs have a theme, and many of the racers did not disappoint when they selected their race attire.
The Dino Dash was, obviously, dinosaur themed and a lot of racers dressed in dino-themed leggings or shirts. Some even came in FULL dino costume. It was pretty awesome. We kept Tucker low-key. He’s got a pair of dino pajamas under his shorts and race shirt.
So, he was semi-hooked. Look at that proud finisher!
We ended up (or I ended up) signing him up for another one. This one was in October. Halloween themed, of course. This one was The Great Pumpkin Chase. As you can see, things just got real; little man earned a medal! And how fun to have a Halloween race–the costumes on ALL the racers were top notch. Way to show out, Albuquerque!
We skipped the Thanksgiving races (and there were a few). Instead, we opted for a Christmastime race. The Run, Run Rudolph. This race was cool because the fun run participants each got a pair of antlers AND a Rudolph nose. Our little racer did pretty awesome on this cold day! Also nice was the fact that the race was just down the way!
Tucker ran the Sweetheart Run in February. This race was just down the way (the other way) from our house at the Bosque School. Things were a little confusing at this race, and the fun runners (and their parents) weren’t sure where they would begin. Tucker did an AWESOME job, did his best, and was the 6th little kid to cross the finish line out of the 30 or so runners.
The post-run Tucker is pretty exhausted.
My husband, Jason, and I agreed that a kid k for Tucker every other month wasn’t too cost prohibitive. We want him to find things he loves, and right now he seems to love this, or at least enjoy it a lot. We have talked about getting ourselves into a running shape as well. Tucker may enjoy it now, but he may not if we (Jason and I) don’t join him. So that’s our plan. We want to be able to run the 2018 Run Run Rudolph WITH Tucker. And we are working toward that goal!
Last weekend, Tucker ran another kid k in the Albuquerque Marathon. He did great!
How do you get moving?
Living, In Action 