One of the benefits of having a baby in the summer is that you can take her outside. In our house this means the baby gets to come with us on family runs. On Saturday we introduced that baby to her first family run. The baby slept the entire way and her four-year-old sister didn’t poke her or otherwise try to disturb her during the four mile trek so Marathon Girl and I considered the run an overwhelming success. So successful, in fact, we’re taking the whole crew on another long run Monday morning. It’s fun to watch the way our family runs have morphed over the years. Instead of pushing everyone in running strollers, our two oldest boys are now on bikes and big enough and strong enough that they can easily outpace mom and dad and will now wait for us at corners or stop signs for us to catch up with them. In a few years they’ll be old enough to stay at home by themselves instead of having to come with mom and dad. We try to make the runs as fun as possible for them now in hopes they’ll want to keep riding their bikes with us (or, perhaps, run with us) when that time comes.
Though I hope the kids don’t grow up too fast, I personally can’t wait for the four year old to get off her training wheels next summer so she can ride alongside the boys. Two weeks ago I pushed her and the two year old in the double-wide running stroller. The two kids and the stroller weight approximately 100 lbs and after 45 minutes of pushing them I was seriously beat. Having the stroller get to heavy has always been a sign that it’s time to kick the kid out of the stroller and make them bike it. Our oldest daughter’s days in the stroller are seriously numbered.
And for those who are wondering why Marathon Girl is running only a month after giving birth, I don’t know how to explain it but that woman’s body just heals remarkably fast. (For the record, I've been telling her to wait and take it easy.) She’s not up to her prime speed yet but Saturday she was running faster than me and a lot of the other runners—and she was pushing the two year old in our single wide. Can’t wait to see her run some more marathons next year.