Carman (16 now) is not much of a runner. He much prefers cycling and he, like me, has a body much more appropriate for pushing pedals.
But after several failed attempts, it appears that we have finally succeeded in getting into one of the free footraces around town and the older kids have been noticeably motivated to run lately. This particular race will be a road mile, with separate heats for each age group.
So today, as the time approached for our every-other-day 4-5 mile run, Carman announced to me that he had found a good mile course in our neighborhood. Later I realized that he intended to run it hard, with the caveat that we would be toe-striking and nose-breathing. I thought he had a shot at beating me because he had seemed pretty strong lately over middle distances when we would get frisky during our otherwise relaxed runs.
It was just in the last year that he officially out-sprinted me for the first time. Starting about five years ago, he would challenge me to a sprint every so often and always manage to come up short. We raced on the beach at Valpo about 15 months ago and I won “on a technicality”. (He misunderstood where the finish line was — gotta love that 🙂 ) Finally, he beat me outright in a local park about six month ago and it was official.
Beating me in running was a long time coming for him compared to cycling, in which he blew me away on a time trial in September of 2012. I know it was fair because we rode the same bike. (No, not at the same time, silly.)
Similar story with armwrestling, with the baton passing to him (for left and right arms) about a month ago. We haven’t been swimming at all lately, but I already know that I’d be lucky to be keeping up by drafting off of either Carman or Sudoku at this point. Carman could certainly out-do me in push-ups and pull-ups by the time he was 12.
But in running, no. Certainly not distance running. After all, I spent huge chunks of my life doing this! Surely I’m not going to be struggling to keep up in this, too?
We started our mile time trial and, within 100 yards, I knew that I couldn’t hang with him. He pulled away. I thought maybe he was going out too fast and would come back to me. He kept pulling away … very evenly like he was an old pro at this.
He finished in 5:40 and I in 6 flat.
Looking at the bright side, now I have a real training partner!
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