As I have documented here the Mud Puddle has become a bit of a runner. He has run three 5k’s a couple of fun runs and did Cross Country at school this fall.
On Saturday the three of us ran a 5k together, well not together, Scott sprinted off on his own and the MP and I made our way around the course as a team. My goal was for us to run the entire time at a steady (if not slightly slow) pace so that we didn’t stop and walk at all. We managed to just miss our goal of 12 minute miles (our average was 12:12) but we ran the whole way.
And the MP TALKED the whole way.
I just wanted to share with you the list of topics covered over the course of 3.1 miles and 37 minutes of running.
Dogs – every dog we saw warranted comment. Since we ran most of the race through the trails frequented by dog owners and their pets this was a lot of conversation time. Big dogs, small dogs, wiener dogs, what the wiener dog would look like dressed up as a hot dog for Halloween with mustard and a bun, why it is called a wiener dog when it is not red but hairy. That wiener dog got a lot of action.
Our Team logo – he thinks we should be G Force and have some kind of dog (really? Dogs??) as our logo. I think we should be the Red Velvet Runners and have a cupcake wearing sneakers as our mascot. This debate may go on for a while.
People we knew in the race – he saw a sister of a friend and that friend’s mom at the start and kept looking behind us for them (they were ahead of us the whole time) which would lead me to exclaim “stop looking behind you or you are going to fall.”
The concept of personal space – I like him close most of the time but not when I am running and he is zigzagging in front of me. He kept invading my space, I kept calling him on it and he would ‘jump’ out of ‘my bubble’.
Running and runners – who was ahead of us who was behind us, how fast we were running, where we were running, where we thought Scott was running, the difference between the 10k course markers and the 5k course markers. Running, running, running.
The water station – this was at the halfway mark and resulted in much pre station stop planning: which side do we get the water? Do we keep running and grab or stop and gently take it from the person and post stop cup angst: did we really get to through our cups on the ground? Who was going to pick them up? Why is it ok to litter when you run?
My side of this conversation was “uh-huh”, “yup”, “you think so” “get out of that mud puddle” (the nickname was such foreshadowing on my part, he is like metal to a magnet with mud puddles), “watch where you are going”, “Slow down”, “move over”, “I don’t know”.
Seriously, the conversation was more exhausting than the race I think but we had a great time.
Pictures below:
Pre Race secret handshake.
NO PHOTOS IT IS A SECRET!!
Every Mud Puddle for themselves in the final stretch.
He wins by a nose -
my love for him trumps my competitiveness.
