I am Professor Runs-A-Lot

On Father's Day, since my Daddy is in Heaven, I have to write about the most wonderful Daddy that is in my life, and that would be my husband Steven. This post is dedicated to you, Seabiscuit!!!!

I almost fainted, but Steven decided to talk about running and it was NOT in response to a conversation initiated by me! He said he just didn't understand how you could run with a short stride. I told him it could indeed be done, that I was master of the short stride. She-who-has-long-legs has a short stride. I told him if I could do it then I knew he could. I told him to come out in the backyard to a grassy spot with no stickers so we could run barefoot(this is a trick I learned from my friend the Running Whisperer, and that is another blog post.....) My oldest son, loving to watch this running lesson, said "Yeah, Professor Runs-A-Lot, do it!"  I'm not sure why people in the South have to have a nickname for everything, but we do, and this was mine for the moment. We get started, and I told him for me the best way to keep your stride short is to match the short stride of the person you are running with. My running buddy is shorter than me with shorter legs and she has a great short stride, so to get my own stride right I started making my legs/feet move when hers did, and VOILA, there's your short stride. We ran back and forth in the grass, and he matched me stride for stride, and he said "OK, I've got it!" I wanted a ray of light to fall from the sky on me and that music to play, like when Chevy Chase and his family found THE perfect Christmas tree in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.  I basked in the moment that I taught Steven how to do something that he originally couldn't do. What a great feeling. It will never happen again probably so I try and relive this feeling a lot!!!!!

It was time for shoes. We put them on and started again. It didn't work so well. His leg cramped again between his calf and his Achilles tendon. And that was the end of my running fun for the day. I told him he needed to get fitted for running shoes because his Nike Air Max are way too cushiony. He said it wasn't the shoes and shoes aren't that important anyway....and boy is he wrong about that. I feel another class from Professor Runs-A-Lot coming.....he'll get this, or I should say he can make a few minor adjustments so his body will cooperate, and we will make beautiful runs together!!! I think he has decided to ride a bike instead, but he hasn't totally given up with the running.


Happy Father's Day Steven! Thank you for supporting me as I miss dinner time a lot to run, and as I mess up our Saturday morning talks to run, as laundry lays in our bedroom floor piled up to the dresser so I can run, and listening to me talk about running and sometimes responding as if you are interested. I could not take this middle-aged marathon journey without your never-ending support. And for not getting mad when I have to buy new running shoes. Muah!!!!!!