RAMBLIN’ WITH RAY

3/13/06

TAKE A KID RUNNING

Did you ever watch little kids run?

I spend a lot of time at Jenkins County ELementary School. I'm amazed at how often I hear teachers say, "stop running", "walk", "slow down before you fall", etc. Stop by an elementary school playground sometimes. Those little guys never stop running. Now if you really like to see little kids run, you should have been in Millen on Saturday, March 11, 2006. Our Super Eagle Day 1 Mile Fun Run/Walk and 5K Road Race had 78 kids age 15 and under. What a sight. You have got to stay near the starting line and watch them take off. My daughter Michelle commented on how even the little guys and gals start off like the race is a 50 meter dash. They follow that old runner’s adage that says something like "run as hard as you can for as long as you can".

Of course part of the fun is watching mom and dad, grandma and grandpa, uncles and aunts, teachers and friends who are walking or running with the little fellows. You hear, "don’t run so fast" or "you’d better slow down" or "we’ve got a long way to go"........but all this advice falls on deaf ears. Those little guys, well, they just want to scald dogs!

I had a great view at Super Eagle Day III. I was in the police car leading the 1 mile race. I got out at the 1/2 mile turn around point. By the time they got to me, the older kids were pulling away, but the little guys were still chugging. When the last group of walkers passed me, I hitched a ride back to the finish line. I was just in time to see some of the 5 and 6 year old kids finish. You want to see some big smiles, watch the people at the finish line when those little kids come through. You want to see some bigger smiles, arrange to have a bunch of awards for the young kids in a race. At the awards ceremony we get to call out 3 boys and 3 girls in each age group. That’s where the smiles get even bigger.

Race Directors........think about this. Instead of the old non-competitive 1 Mile Fun Run, make it competitive!!!! At this year’s Super Eagle Day, we gave out medals, 1st, 2nd and 3rd, male and female in age groups 6 & under, 7 & 8, 9 & 10, 11 & 12, 13 & 14, 15 - 19 and 20 and over. We had 174 entrants in the 1 Mile Fun Run/Walk. It was great!!!!!!!!! Next year we are adding age groups 20 - 29, 30 - 39, 40 - 49, 50 - 59 and 60 and over. For safety reasons, we are splitting our 2007 1 Mile Fun Run/Walk into two races. We will have a Baby Eagle Fun Run/Walk for ages 12 and under, then the Super Eagle 1 Mile for ages 13 and over. We had a number of age group trophies left over after the 5K, but every single one of our 1 mile age group medals was awarded.

If we build it..........and give out medals or trophies.......they will come.

And if you really want mom and dad to support your race, just call those little guys’ names out and give them a medal or a trophy. Now you’ve got a whole other group of smiles!

It’s nice to see people my age winning trophies and medals, but how many of us take our trophies to work with us the Monday after a race? Not many. But today (Monday after Super Eagle Day) at the middle school and the elementary school, I saw a bunch of Super Eagle Day t-shirts and a bunch of little guys and gals with their medals hanging around their necks.

My wife Pat, who is a big help to me at our races, mentioned that she heard several of the little guys talking about next year’s race. She overheard the ones who got medals in the 1 mile admiring the trophies from the 5K. "Just wait until next year, I’m going to run the 5K so that I can win me a trophy," one child said.

Sometimes I think we can learn a lot from children if we would just listen. Isn’t that what most of us say after we race? I wish I could count the times I’ve started a sentence with "wait until next year." We as runners don’t have to wait until next year. If we check the racing schedule, we can find a race next week-end. If today’s race didn’t go as planned, we don’t have to wait a year, we only have to wait a few days.

I’ve talked about big smiles. Now if you want to see a really big smile, just find the race director who has just seen almost 80 youngsters enter his or her race and watched 36 of them win medals for their performance. The smile comes from the thought, like the song says, "This Could Be The Start of Something Big." You just don’t know how many of them will be running 10 or 20 years from now, but you know that you’ve done just a little bit to help them get started.

Now for the don't part of this story. Don't do this just to make a few dollars at your next race. We, as runners, have an obligation to make sure that other people are introduced to our great sport. And who better to start with than young children? Heck, most of them run all the time anyway. It's just that at around age 9 or 10, they stop running and go inside to play video games. Sometimes they don't come back outside to run until they are in their 30's.

And one last thing.............when is the last time you’ve asked a small child to run with you? Too busy training for your next race? Well let me tell you one thing, it takes exactly 10 minutes to run a 10 minute mile, and that’s about all the time you will need with some of the smaller children. So talk to your children, your neighborhood children, a group from your church about running with you.......... and........well......... to borrow a line from our friends who like to fish............Take A Kid Running!

Now don‘t you need a REALLY BIG SMILE? If you do, then make plans to join us on March 10, 2007 and watch the kids running in Super Eagle Day IV, or better yet, bring a couple of children and join them in the 1 mile fun run. There is a small entry fee for running or walking, but the all the smiles you can take with you are absolutely free.

Come on now, Take A Kid Running, you’ll be glad you did!

Happy Trails,

Ray