Running for Jelly Beans

Some days present you with unexpected moments to cherish, and Gavin provided one such gem Sunday afternoon.

To say that Gavin has a huge excess of energy would be like saying Scooby Doo was partial to the occasional scooby snack. That's great when it comes to things like gymnastics class, but not so great when he gets in trouble at school because he can't sit still.

So after he spent the weekend revolutionizing and innovating the noble art of naughty ways, I decided to switch tactics. We've signed him up for Marathon Kids, and I decided to see if I could channel his energy into running. He'd already found the bag of jelly beans in my handheld that were left over from my long runs this weekend, and I told him I'd give him a challenge. I said that I didn't believe he could run a whole mile without stopping, but that if he could prove me wrong he could have all the jelly beans he'd found.

Of course he immediately agreed to the challenge.

I have a 1 mile loop around my neighborhood, and I told him the only place he could walk was when we had to cross the road. Otherwise, if he stopped running at any point I won the bet and there would be no jelly beans.

And off we went. We both carried our own handheld water bottle (he wanted one "just like daddy"), but of course he insisted on carrying the one containing the jelly beans.

I was pretty confident because there's a nice little hill in the middle of the run that I was sure he wouldn't get up without stopping, but he proved me wrong - he just took it in stride and glided up it like it wasn't there.

We enjoyed ourselves. He listened to what I had to say, relaxed as he ran and we had a great chat and some quality father-son time. As we came down the last part of the loop he said to me "daddy, do you want me to show you how to run properly" and took off. And when he went, he really did go. I had to kick it in to keep up with him - I'd say he was doing a good 9 minute mile.

Cocky little devil - that's my boy.

We got back to the house and I stopped my watch at 11:50 (yes, I admit it. I'm that dad who timed his 5 year old running a mile - how sad am I).

I was so proud of him. He didn't care - he was already into the jelly beans.

He even gave me one. Because "you ran well too daddy".