Mommy? No Problem!

I got my April Runner’s World on Saturday and what did they go and do? They wrote an article entitled “The Mommy Problem”. For those of you who read the article and thought “Gee, that’s too bad”, skip to the end. For those that read it and could relate on various levels, read on.

I’m like the first part –married to the non-runner husband. Now, he’s not exactly like Jack, he plays volleyball two days a week, never watches “Sports Center” and I’m the one who insists on going to 9am Sunday mass (long runs are reserved for Saturdays). But otherwise, I’m like Sarah Bowen Shea. I’m mommy. 24 – 7 (my husband is also a workaholic) and I tend to make dinner 4 nights a week (leftovers take up at least one and sushi is a family favorite another night – more on that another time)

I’m a terrible morning runner – terrible. In fact, I hate it with a passion. Tell me I can go swimming at 6am and I can do that (somehow getting wet that early doesn’t bother me). Tell me to put sneakers on that early and it’s just not a good scene. I don’t know why. But I digress. I’m back to running at lunch time; working part time for the hubby’s business does have some benefits. That works swell for me. However, unlike the days when I ran at lunch on the treadmill in the gym at Bear Stearns (remember them?), there’s no shower at this office. Luckily Target makes a great unscented baby wipe that I buy in bulk (what is the checkout girl going to think when I drag a teenager into Target with me and I’m buying baby wipes?). I’ll let you know how this goes in the summer – something tells me I’m going to have to learn to be a morning runner.

The second article, by Dimity McDowell had me laughing from the get go, but then nodding my head in agreement later on. My daughter, Elizabeth is 4 ½. She thinks running is cool. She runs everywhere, she rarely walks, unless it’s when I want to get one more thing at the grocery store, and then she literally drags her feet. She thinks running is so cool that this year she took my ING Hartford Marathon finisher medal to school for show and tell. Lord only knows what she told them (I probably won the race or something crazy) but that doesn’t really matter. She would rather come for a run with me then be left home, unless Daddy is making banana pancakes for breakfast (I would rather stay home then too).

She and I ran together for about 2 years, with her in the baby jogger. Now, she’s a little too heavy for me with the hills around here and a little too active to sit still for that long, especially when she would rather be running too.  This summer, we’ll probably do some fun runs together locally and maybe even a couple in Central Park. She’ll start her race finisher medal collection at an earlier age then I ever would have dreamed of. She’ll also start a life long (hopefully) trip down a path of healthy behaviors. As McDowell says “’force’ is not a verb that works well with kids.” I’m hoping that by ingraining activity in her brain, she’ll always be active and won’t have those super couch potato tendencies that her dad does (especially on a Sunday night).

So do we mommies have a problem? Other then the usual not enough time in the day to get everything done, nope, no problem, it’s just learning how to balance. Sometimes I wish they had a yoga pose for mommy balance. That would be a hit. In the meantime, I need to learn to be a morning runner, get my non-running spouse to be a tad more understanding, convince my 4 ½ year old, without seemingly trying to convince her, that being active is a good thing. Yep – all in a days work. That’s what runs are for – figuring out how to cram 25 hours of a day into 24. Piece of cake – especially for us mommies who have a problem. 
-The Gabster