Ten weeks ago I decided to try teaching a 5k clinic at Running Room. \u00a0I was looking for a way to share my running passion and enjoy the company of others along a scenic river route. \u00a0There was of course part of me that questioned if I should be teaching a clinic. \u00a0After all, I have only recently become comfortable in calling myself a runner. \u00a0But doing the clinic was everything I hoped for and more. \u00a0It was such a pleasure meeting new people\u00a0and seeing them progress from 5 minutes\/ 1 minute intervals to running 5.4 km in our finalclass. \u00a0Even more exciting was hearing from one of the runners who did her first 5k race this week (a sub 30 minute to boot!). \u00a0I love how she described her run to me in an email:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I love that description of having a swell of energy and happiness. \u00a0Is it any wonder we get addicted to this sport?<\/p>\n
As for me, I am grateful for having the experience of sharing a running journey with a great group of people. \u00a0We hope to keep connecting this fall at various races and I can’t wait to cheer them on! \u00a0Next week I move on to a new 5k group and look forward to being part of their journey as well.<\/p>\n
And finally, on the topic of trying new things, I have signed up for lessons that I never in a million years thought I would do. \u00a0I am telling everyone I know and writing it here so that there is no backing out. \u00a0This may not sound big to most of you, but for me it definitely is. \u00a0I am going to take swimming lessons. \u00a0Anyone who knows me knows how much I HATE the idea of swimming. \u00a0I hate the cold water (yes that includes heated pools), I hate having my head under that cold water and while I know I can get from point A to point B, it certainly wouldn’t be pretty. \u00a0It is the one activity that my kids know I will not do with them.<\/p>\n
So why am I going to pay good money to do something I hate? \u00a0Lots of reasons I guess. \u00a0One is certainly safety. \u00a0My kids spend a lot of time in the water now, both at the lake and a few minutes away from home at a beach on the river. \u00a0Gone are the days when anytime they were near the water they had life jackets on. \u00a0I need to know that if necessary I can get to them in an emergency.<\/p>\n
Another reason is of course the benefits of swimming as cross training. \u00a0If I could actually get myself to feel confident in the water – maybe even enjoy it – this could be a way for me to maintain fitness without always relying on running.<\/p>\n
Much of my decision was made after watching my boys in lessons last week. \u00a0In four short semi-private lessons I watched both of them make significant progress. \u00a0I thought surely if they could make progress so could I. \u00a0I am ignoring the little voice inside of my head that keeps reminding me they are young, I am not.<\/p>\n
Finally, I think I just felt the need to do something out of my comfort zone. \u00a0It is possible I will continue to hate swimming and it is possible that I will discover despite my effort it will just not be a skill I will master. \u00a0At least though I will be able to say I tried and (hopefully) didn’t quit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ten weeks ago I decided to try teaching a 5k clinic at Running Room. \u00a0I was looking for a way to share my running passion and enjoy the company of others along a scenic river route. \u00a0There was of course part of me that questioned if I should be teaching a clinic. \u00a0After all, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-running"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3amQ2-hR","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1107"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1108,"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1107\/revisions\/1108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}