Raise your hand if you're a runner

I'm not going to lie, I'd like to be fast. I'd like to be fast enough that I can win races or at least win my age group. And not just at races where there's only one other person in my age group... and she's walking. But in these last few weeks I've been forced to reevaluate my running goals and accept that I may never be leading the pack. But while driving my husband to the airport last week, I realized that there's a lot more to running than being fast.

I was thinking about getting back into running. I haven't been running at all for a long time so I thought it would be fun to do a race with my 8 year old son. It would help me ease into running again and force me to slow down and just enjoy it. So I asked if he'd like to do a 5k with me in a few months. He was a little nervous about the thought of 3 miles. He did a 1 mile race a while back and after starting the race in an all out sprint, the second half of the race was pretty rough for him, so he wondered if he could finish 3 miles. So we talked about training and going out slow. And then during this conversation, my 3 year old son yelled, "I want to do a race! I want to do a race!" And then my 2 year old daughter chimed in as well that she wanted to run a race too. I kind of laughed and told them they could do a race too and then my 3 year old yelled, "I want to be a runner!" And that was it. I just felt so proud that my kids wanted to be like me. And I realized that I could come in dead last in every race and they wouldn't care. They just loved to come to races and to see me wave when I ran by. I can't wait to race again. My kids think I win every time and who am I to tell them otherwise?