Last Updated on 22 November 2024 by Colette
This post features product gifted for review
Although it’s the middle of the Rugby Union season for Ben, we’ve inadvertently ended up with a run of weekends where he can’t get to training or games due to us being away or him doing his voluntary work with Cubs. As a rule we try really hard to keep Friday nights and Sunday mornings free for him but sometimes it just doesn’t work out and he misses a game or training here and there.
With it being a block of three weeks where he can’t get to training, we talked about how important it was that he made sure he did something else in that time to maintain his fitness and stamina – his really keen on his bouldering at the moment but that doesn’t fit in with us being away on a weekend so we talked about him trying to fit some runs in. Ben doesn’t love running but he does know the value of it in terms of his rugby – so that’s generally enough motivation for him to put on his running trainers and get out for the occasional 5k.
Back in September, Ben set out to do a 5k after school one night but rang me to say that actually, he was quite enjoying the run and could he stay out for a bit longer – he ended up running his first 10k that night with no real training as such and I’m not sure he’s really done much running since (except of course on the rugby pitch!).
Knowing that he had time for a long run last weekend, we discussed that 10k and agreed he would go out on Saturday morning and just run as far as he could and that, rather than worrying about routes and making sure he had enough energy to get home again, he could just ring me and I’d go and rescue him from wherever he’d got to.
He quite likes running in the dark so decided to get up early Saturday morning and I was woken by the door slamming behind him at 6.50am – I nodded off again but about an hour later I woke up and decided I’d better get up and dressed so that I was ready in case he called to be picked up. At this point, using the tracker on his phone, I could see he was running down the main road into town and was already further than he’d ever run before so I was expecting a call at any moment to say that he was done in and needed me to go get him.
That phone call never came, I continued to track Ben whilst I was eating my breakfast and pottering doing jobs – I could see he was making his way back up the main road and thought he was coming home but nope, he carried on up the main road and then started to loop back round again – at this point I realised he probably had a specific distance in mind.
About two hours and fifty minutes after he’d set off, he came through the front door looking surprisingly fresh for someone who had just run their very first half marathon with next to no training . . .
He said as soon as he’d hit the half marathon, he stopped running and walked the last bit home – which he regretted as that last stretch was actually the hardest. He said he’d have been better off carrying on running and that he’d nearly rung me but decided as he was so close to home that would have been silly (of course I told him it wouldn’t and that I’d have absolutely gone and got him).
What an achievement, to just casually knock out a half marathon on Saturday morning and then head into town for your first shift at your new Saturday job in the afternoon!
I’m not sure that he’s suddenly found a passion for running but he definitely seems to like a challenge and to push himself on occasion. We’ve chatted about maybe signing him up to the do the Manchester Half Marathon next May but being as how that’s also GCSE season for him, it might not be such a smart idea!
For now I’m going to jump onto the adidas website and order him some running tights and some brighter tops if he’s going to insist on running in the dark!
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