The Shared Miles are the Best Miles

I ran the Bolder Boulder 10k with my 12-year old son last week.

It was his first road race.

And it was great.

Nothing like watching your 12-year old finish a 6.2 mile race in a stadium with 30,000+ people congratulating you for a job well done.

While standing in line for the our post-race bag of goodies, my son, Alec, told me he thought the race was "easy."  And that he wanted to run the Georgetown to Idaho Springs Half Marathon together this August.

Whoa.

I was blown away.

I thought he viewed his dad lacing up every morning as some kind of alien ritual. Akin to doing algebra homework on Saturday morning. 

I thought he found the Monday and Thursday Bolder Boulder training runs with his 7th grade classmates as drudgery.

I feared the Bolder Boulder would be his one and ONLY race.

I was wrong.

And glad I was wrong.

Watching him train for, and complete this race was a reminder that sometimes, just sometimes, the parenting gods throw us clueless moms and dads a bone.

A reminder that our kids do indeed take to heart and model at least SOME of the good things we try and impart on them.

Unfortunately, our kids rarely TELL us we are influencing them in a positive way.  We parents have to figure that out for ourselves.

In between all our failings.

Failings that are certainly noticed.

And unfortunately taken to heart as well.

That race reminded me of something else:

Achieving big goals and pushing beyond what you thought was possible feels great.

But helping SOMEONE ELSE achieve big goals and helping SOMEONE ELSE push beyond what they thought was possible feels even greater.

And yields greater results.

I have found this to be true when building a great team at work.

Or building great kids at home.

It's not easy.

You make a lot of mistakes--and I mean a lot.

But if you persevere.

And strive to do the right thing for your team, and your kids...

And strive to be CONSISTENT in being a positive influence...

Slowly, slowly, positive results ensue.

Often when you least expect them.

So tomorrow morning I will lace up for my morning run.

It's Summer time, thus, the sun will be up.

I won't be alone though.

Alec is coming with me.

We'll probably run four...maybe five miles.

Just like we did yesterday.

He says he enjoys the miles.

I do to.

It's a good thing...

We have some training to do.

Georgetown to Idaho Springs is a long way.

AMJ