R is for Run

Tomorrow is a holiday here in Massachusetts. It's Patriot's Day. A day that celebrates the anniversary of the Battles of Concord and Lexington. The first shots were fired just as the sun was rising on Lexington Green and so began the American Revolutionary War.
So, I sit here and drink my tea, tea I can drink tax free mind you thanks to those patriots of long ago that decided dumping box after box of the stuff into Boston Harbor was a good idea.
Patriot's Day is also special around here because runners come from all over the world to run the Boston Marathon.

I live in a family of runners.

My husband has run eight Boston Marathons, and a whole host of others from Florida to Washington, D.C. He is a real runner and he loves it.

My two oldest kids are runners. Both have had successful high school running careers winning race after race. My oldest is now training to compete in tri-athalons.

My little one is not a runner in the runner sense of the word, but he will be. He's got those long skinny runner legs. He pretty much already runs where ever he goes. Upstairs to brush his teeth....he runs. To get an oreo...he runs. He runs to get to school, to go to bed, to get up in the morning. He has one speed and that's fast. It's the little boy in him.

I watch the kids at school, running across the room, down the hall, outside at recess. Always running.

Makes me wonder...
When did running for me become "exericise" and no longer fun. Running for the sheer joy of it. The joy of getting somewhere as fast as you can even if it's just to brush your teeth!

I know why...because running hurts!

 I ran today, 2.5 miles, or something like that. I would have run longer, but when I stepped off the curb, my knee went one way, my body the other. Ouch! I sat on the sidewalk and cried. I called the runner in the family, reported my location and told him to come pick me up because not only could I not run home, I wasn't walking very well either.
So I won't be lined up in Hopkinton tomorrow waiting for the shot that signals the start of the 2011 Boston Marathon, but I will be cheering from the comfort of my couch, ice bag on my knee.

Ready! Set! Go!