Dad's Day 5K!
Saturday, June 19
7:00 am
The flyer appeared on the front of the refrigerator a month ago. It featured a drawing of a happy dad and son running together, obviously both in excellent shape, neither breathing hard, smiling at each other as if this were the most fun thing they had ever done together.
“Are you up for it, Dad?” said CW, eagerly. You could tell he thought this was a really super Dad's Day activity. He weighs 150 pounds, is 6 feet tall and never sits still.
“Sure!” said Dan. It was, after all, weeks away. A lot could happen. They could cancel the race, or Father's Day, or there could be nuclear war.
“Great! Let's start getting in shape now. How about tonight?”
“Oh, gosh, I can't tonight. The Rangers are on TV and ..”
“Right, Dad.” CW nodded and rolled his eyes at me. “He'll never do it.”
On Friday night, the night before the run, we took CW and Stacy out to dinner. CW ordered two large glasses of water, a salad without dressing, and fish. “Are we still going tomorrow?” he asked his father.
Dan finished ordering a large marguarita and chicken friend steak and fries. “Absolutely!” he said.
CW nodded. “I want to break 22 minutes this time. Do you have a personal best to beat? A goal?”
Dan thought for a second. “I'd like to be alive at the finish line.”
“That would be good.” I offered. “I haven't had time to increase your life insurance.”
“Very funny,” said Dan, turning to the waitress. “Bring me some water; I'm running a race tomorrow.”
“Like a running race?” the waitress said looking at Dan a little doubtfully. Dan is 6'2” and weighs over 200 pounds. And he had that big marguarita in front of him.
“You must not have to live on your tips,” said Dan.
The scorn of his son and the waitress didn't seem to affect his appetite. CW and Stacy went on to the movies, but Dan decided he needed his rest so we went home to bed. I slept through their departure the next morning, waking only long enough to remind him to keep breathing no matter what.
They returned late in the morning, looking pleased with themselves, having stopped at Waffle House and replenished their fuel source.
“How did you do?” I asked eagerly.
“I was awesome! I beat my time! If the whole Marcus High School track team hadn't shown up, I'd have done really well.” CW was definitely thrilled with his results.
I looked at Dan. “Did you finish?”
He looked affronted and handed me a Dad's Day 5 K t-shirt. “Of course I did. I was awesome, too. Did you doubt me?”
“Oooo- they gave you a t-shirt! You must have been wonderful!” I said, admiringly.
“They give those out before you start,” he said.
“Oh- well, they could have taken it back at the end, if you were really bad.”
“They probably wanted to, but they got tired of waiting for me to finish and left.”
“Dad ran the first two miles great!” Said CW.
“Yeah, and then I stopped for a water and started to run again and my legs said, “Get real, Bud.” So I walked for a while, and then there was this big hill and I thought, ‘I can do this!' I was in back of a bunch of old guys all chugging along. And I put my head and
started pumping and feeling pretty good about myself when I looked up and notice all those old guys had already reached the top and were passing me on the way down.”
“Well, honey. You finished. That's really something to be proud of.”
“Yeah Dad. That was great. 38 minutes isn't that bad. At least you weren't last.” (I decided this was not a good time to ask if the group in wheelchairs was there again this year.)
Dan said later what a really good thing it had been to do together. He was pleased with himself, he felt he'd done a good father thing. He could hardly move.
The next day we barbequed ribs for the special Father's Day dinner and then opened presents. You could tell CW was excited about his gift; he'd gone out on his own that afternoon, bought it, and wrapped it himself.
Dan opened the box and pulled out-- running shorts and socks.
For our next 5K! said the card. I wish I had a picture of Dan's face.
“We're gonna do it again, aren't we, Dad?”
"Absolutely!" said Dan, and opened another beer. |
