Blog – Page 22 – RunningWell

Role modeling running values

July 8, 2014/in Blog Posts/by RWadmin

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the lessons and experiences I’ve gained through running have shaped much of who I am. I see much of the world through a running lens and it follows that I want to share that perspective with my children. I have a seven year-old son and a five year-old daughter. Of course I want them to share in my love of running by doing it alongside me and learning and benefiting from their own experiences in it. So no problem, right? Just encourage them to run, sign them up for kids’ races and kids’ running clubs and away we go. Ha!

It turns out kids (at least mine) have minds of their own. My kids have gone for runs with me (of their own accord) and have participated with varied success in kids’ events. My son also enjoyed going to his track club practices which I’d encouraged him to sign up for – it is a fantastic club with great coaches who introduce track and field to young kids in a very fun way. My son was always sweaty and smiling at the end. But then one day out of the blue he said:”Mom, you just want me to run because you do it. I have to find my own thing.” And that was it.

A few weeks ago when he still enjoyed running

Looking back, I know that my passion for running as a teenager came as my own form of rebellion and self-discovery. My parents knew very little about the sport and took a detached interest in my passion. Throughout my high-school career where I trained with a club two times a week and raced often, they never once came to a practice and I think they may have come to a race once and only because it was in the neighbourhood. I liked it that way. Every time I raced my mother would ask how I did. I’d respond with my time and she always had the same response. “That’s great! What’s your PB (personal best) again?” Because she had absolutely no reference point and had to be reminded of my personal benchmark every single time. I could say I ran the 1500 m in 4:36 or 5:36 (vastly different performances) and she’d be just as happy and proud of me. I ran only for me – there was absolutely no judgement or pressure from the people who mattered most in my life. I truly believe that’s why I’m still doing it more than twenty years later.

Now back to my kids. I want them to benefit as I did from running, but I understand that I cannot force it. I can only be a role model in the best way I can and keep doors open if they happen to decide to get into it. So I’m watching my son skateboard and play basketball in the same detached manner my parents watched me run. I respond to his delighted shrieks of “Mom, I did an Ollie!” with a smile and a “That’s great sweetie.” I don’t know what that is but he seems to be happy with it.

How could a 7-yr old boy find this more fun than running?!?

My daughter is still a bit young to have found a personal passion, but I like to think she’ll find one that doesn’t involve make-up and fancy clothes. All I can do again, is try to be a positive role model. I was floored a while ago when out of the blue she said: “Mommy? Beautiful girls don’t like to show their muscles”. Gulp! I guess her Barbies don’t have very much muscle definition. I quickly showed her the cover of my latest running magazine and said, “Don’t you think this girl is beautiful?” She agreed and changed her mind. Whew! Then a while later she was fussing over which dress to wear to a party and I said “It doesn’t matter. Look what I’m wearing!” My daughter’s response:”Yes, but Mommy – you’re not a pretty girl.” Some people might take offense at this, but I was proud. No, I am not a pretty girl. That is not what I DO. (I may have played her some Ani DiFranco after that).

Kate VanBuskirk – a better role model than Barbie!

I will continue to run and show my kids how it brings a positive influence to my life. If they do ever want to get into it, I will try to let them discover it on their own. I guess what I really hope is that they pick-up on some of the values which I’ve learned along the way; the importance of perseverance, determination, enthusiasm, a sense of fun and the self-confidence that comes from being yourself. Whether they learn these lessons through running or something else, I will be happy and proud of them.

The ugly side of running

June 23, 2014/in Blog Posts/by RWadmin

Not to be vain, but for the most part I think running tends to make people better looking. It increases blood flow, giving you better skin, decreases body fat, increases muscle tone and gets you out in the fresh air giving you that “healthy glow” appeal. However, I have noticed one extreme aesthetic downside to all the running I do, and that is the appearance of my feet.

I do not want to turn anyone off of running for fear of getting feet like mine, so I will tell you that it has been a slow and almost imperceptible change over 25 years of running. I used to rather like my feet. I thought they were well proportioned – toes neither too long nor too stubby, nice arches, normal shape. I basically felt confident walking around in bare feet or sandals anywhere. These days however, when I go swimming, I have no problem wearing a bikini in front of strangers but I feel I should keep my feet covered up!

So what do they look like? Basically they have very large callouses along the sides and bottoms (areas that protect them from miles and miles of intense pressure and pounding.) There are a few misshapen toe-nails which have been lost and grown back a few times. Plus the ends of two toes (the longest ones on each foot) are all dead skin and callous – not really sure why this is. Most of the time now I just try to ignore the fact that these appendages are attached to the bottoms of my legs. Generally I cover them with socks and shoes when I can, but as we entered our third or fourth week of sandal season, I realized I could no longer live in denial. I had to do some house-keeping.

So, the other day I took my four-year old daughter (who has encouraged me to stop running so that my feet could get “un-ugly”) to the salon so we could both get pedicures. You see I thought I could bring her along for the cute factor and distract them from the horror they were being asked to fix. I have heard of runners asking them not to remove callouses because they’ve built them up for protection, but I was feeling adventurous and wanted to see an “extreme makeover” so I said nothing and left the challenge in their professional hands.

She had her work cut out for her here

The outcome? They were very professional and acted like I was “normal” while removing pounds of dead skin. My feet became presentable and I felt almost confident walking around in my flip-flops.

You can barely tell which ones are the runner’s feet

Then I went for my first post-pedicure run. It felt…. the same as usual. I think my callouses are so ingrained they would actually have to be surgically removed at this point. They had returned to their pre-pedicure form within one run.

These were petal-soft one week ago

Oh well. I think I can live with this side-effect from running. I’m sure in another 25 years I’ll look back and think that these were baby callouses! Oh dear…

My running friends

June 10, 2014/in Blog Posts/by RWadmin

I am lucky to have many good friends who have been with me through different phases in my life, from going to school in a new town, traveling, getting married, having kids, starting and changing careers, etc… Every now and then I start thinking about a friend or relationship in my life, and I trace it back to its origin. Most often, the origin began with running.

I don’t consciously choose friends because they are runners. In fact, many of my friends who became friends through running no longer run, or at least not with me. We get together now for other reasons like play-dates for our kids, book clubs, coffee, dinner. Running is rarely what we talk about, but it’s a background of common knowledge. We basically understand each other.

How I hang out with many of my running friends these days

One of my earliest formed “running friendships” began in grade 9. I was at a track meet waiting for my race and so was a curly-haired girl from a rival school and track-club. We started jumping on the high-jump mats (as one does in preparation for running 1500m) and it was instant friendship. Twenty four years later she is still one of my best friends.

Throughout high school and university I developed different interests and different sets of friends. The ones which have stuck however are mostly the ones which were formed around running. This seems strange to me as there are so many variants to my friends’ personalities and interests apart from having once been (or still being) runners. Some love to party, some are more reserved, some are funny, some are quiet listeners, some are numbers people, some are poetry people, some are parents, some are pet-lovers, some are peace-makers, some love personal drama. And don’t even get me started on the differences in their careers!

So why do I like all these very different and interesting types of people and why do they like me? I have NO IDEA! The only thing I can think of is that we were all once (or still are) runners. Somehow there is something in each other that we all GET.

Luckily I married one of these runner types. We met on the track team at university and used to run together a lot. Every now and then we’ll still go for a run together, but that’s not our main thing anymore. There are many different things that we do together these days, but I like to think it was all built on a foundation of running.

Marrying my best running friend

I hope to continue to make friends in life as I genuinely like people and benefit greatly from their friendship and company. I don’t know which friendships will continue to grow and last until old-age, but if my trend holds true, the ones which I’m continuing to make through running will be among those still there when we’re old and grey!

Running friends gamely learning to surf at my wedding