WITH. Not from. 🙂

As I’ve written here previously, my Dad was my swim coach when I was young. When I reached high school, I decided (completely arbitrarily) to start running. I ran track – the longer distances. Speed was never my strong suit, but all of those years of swimming gave me endurance.

Swimming is my first love, and being in the water is still where I feel most natural and graceful.

But when it comes to simplicity, running wins that race. Haha!

One good pair of shoes is really all you need. But, when you have a baby, you need more than the shoes. And more than a flimsy umbrella stroller. When you have 2 children, that stroller becomes a magnificent and epic beast that you have to push down the trail or the track or the sidewalk.

Maddie started out running: I’d hit the track for 5 miles (my favored distance) and she’d hop out of that serious, off-road stroller, and run for about 3 miles.

The little guy came to it later. This past fall, Moses asked me if he could join the cross country team. Now, he’s a running machine. 🙂

I get up to go hiking, two sidekicks come with me. When they have a day off from school, they run with me. Stair workouts, 5k races, Maddie and Moses are right there with me.

Lara is a soccer and basketball person. I’m good with sports that require nothing but my own body. Hand me equipment, and my clumsiness comes to the top.

Maddie jogs after school, Moses is perpetual motion.

Those long, solo runs that I take in the pre-dawn hours may be bliss, but nothing compares to my running “group”: quirky humour, sibling rivalry, and the whole 9. 🙂

A happy and healthy Tuesday, and blessings to you all…