SHE ASKED…………

She asked me if we could start jogging together.

I’m not quite sure where she got the desire to go running from, but I, as a Dad, I was rather pleased to hear her suggest it, and pleased that she asked me to do it with her!

Susanna asked at dinner time on Sunday. We chatted it up a bit and then I asked her when she’d like to start. She enthusiastically said, “NOW!”

Of course, I suggested that we do it Monday evening or Tuesday and explained to her that running right after eating is not a good idea… so, we bantered some more.

“How about we start on Tuesday morning?” she asked.

My wife and I looked at each other knowing that getting me up in the mornings will be a chore. Reluctantly, I agreed and Susanna was quite ecstatic.

TUESDAY @ 6:30AM…………

My wife literally hit me awake at 6:30am. I rolled out of bed and put on some shorts and socks. I stumbled into Susanna’s room to wake her and tell her to get dressed. We trudged downstairs and drank a little bit of water. We put on our sneakers and tip-toed outside since Mom and Sammy were still sleeping.

I explained to Susanna that we should always do a little warm-up and stretching before exercising… so we took a few minutes to stretch. Then we took off to run……… around the block twice.

We only got about half-way around the block before she pooped out — about 280 yards (green). So, we walked the rest of the way around —  I talked about not stopping but keeping active and moving… and she talked about picking flowers. She is definitely my daughter — she is as easily distracted and quick to find an excuse as I am… tsk, tsk, tsk.

I told her that our goal was to get around the block twice, not pick flowers. She agreed. But before we got to running again, she asked if we could pick flowers when we got back around and started to walk again.

< sigh >

“Yes, Susanna. You can pick flowers once we start walking,” I said.

So, we picked up running again from our driveway and finished the “interval” at the same spot as before half-way around. She promptly started to pick carnations, those mini-daisy looking things, and other weedy flowers along the way.

As we arrived back in our driveway, I told her that I’d love see to her eventually be able to run around the block twice without needing to stop. She seemed to think that was do-able, and then I instructed her that we needed to stretch our muscles again to “cool down.”

She did so… but with far less interest as in the beginning. We finished up and tip-toed back inside. We put the weeds… er… I mean… flowers in a glass cup and set it in our kitchen…. and then had a quick peanut-butter and banana on toast breakfast before the typical morning routine and rush ensued.

Thus, went our first attempt at running.

I think I shall call her “Running Flower-Picker”