A healthy lifestyle is something I am very grateful to have. I am eternally grateful for having been brought up
in a family where I was encouraged to get outside and do sport. I often write about how running has been a hugely positive influence in my life. As the years pass, the more it becomes part of me. You hear similar sentiments all the time. Sometimes it is a raging catalyst, a tsunami that wreaks amazing changes on people's lives. Sometimes it is just a ripple that helps nudge them toward leading a more balanced life. Sometimes it is just the little things that make all the difference.
Last year I had a boy in my class. I'll call him 'A'. He was one of those siblings who just lived continually in the shadow of their brother or sister. Loved, but never quite getting out from under their sibling's success. Each day after school he would be taken off to a host of private lessons, golf, tennis, swimming and violin and French too. All the same lessons that his older and more successful brother went to. All the same lessons would reaffirm how good his older was and much more he would have to do. Convincing his mother during parents' evening of his merits was tough. I have never quite had a boy who tried so hard at anything.
I also coach Boy's Games and during the Spring we started track and field. He is the by and far away the fittest boy in about 3 year groups due to his regime after school and on the weekend. In the track events he would run his heart out, but he could never crack the top three in any race. Of course that his brother was well known in the school for being quick didn't help him. I noticed that whenever the kids did warm up laps he would bolt ahead to the front of the group and just stay there. It was like watching a slinky spring being pulled from the front - he would be out ahead with this long trail of kids behind him. In the sprints he never looked as tired as the others even though he was trying his hardest. He was just running out of track. I decided to introduce a race, a longer race for their age group just to suit him. He didn't have the zip in his legs like some of the other kids, and if you could fuse a Panzer tank and a metronome together then that's just what he was like - he just crushed them with his steady consistency. He had found something that he could be good at. Because the race was longer than what the kids where used to, it was thought of as the tough race. It helped A even more. The season progressed and so did his self-belief and confidence. People now mentioned his name when talking about running. He practically glowed.
At the end of the season I mentioned what progress he had made to his mother who was sceptical but graciously agreed to indulge me. I wanted to show A that running could also take place off the track. As they lived very close to us I suggested that we met where I took our dogs walking. His mother would walk the trail while we ran ahead with the dogs. Despite him now being a more confident runner it was obvious he had never run outside before. Kids just don't get to explore any more. Hesitant at first he soon revelled in the freedom, jumping over rocks and running through the stream. The dogs barrelling through the long grass next to us amazed him. At the end of the school year I received a hand-made card that explained it all.
A year later he is no longer in my class though has joined my cross-country team. At the age of 10 he wanted to run a trail race. After getting special permission from the organisers, he was allowed to race in the men's 18-29 category. He won. What path he chooses to follow with his running is up to him. But what he does know is that he is good at something. He can run and run until the others fall away. I know that when he looks at a mountain he sees it differently to how he used to. He now wonders if there are tracks that he can run on.
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Last year I had a boy in my class. I'll call him 'A'. He was one of those siblings who just lived continually in the shadow of their brother or sister. Loved, but never quite getting out from under their sibling's success. Each day after school he would be taken off to a host of private lessons, golf, tennis, swimming and violin and French too. All the same lessons that his older and more successful brother went to. All the same lessons would reaffirm how good his older was and much more he would have to do. Convincing his mother during parents' evening of his merits was tough. I have never quite had a boy who tried so hard at anything.
I also coach Boy's Games and during the Spring we started track and field. He is the by and far away the fittest boy in about 3 year groups due to his regime after school and on the weekend. In the track events he would run his heart out, but he could never crack the top three in any race. Of course that his brother was well known in the school for being quick didn't help him. I noticed that whenever the kids did warm up laps he would bolt ahead to the front of the group and just stay there. It was like watching a slinky spring being pulled from the front - he would be out ahead with this long trail of kids behind him. In the sprints he never looked as tired as the others even though he was trying his hardest. He was just running out of track. I decided to introduce a race, a longer race for their age group just to suit him. He didn't have the zip in his legs like some of the other kids, and if you could fuse a Panzer tank and a metronome together then that's just what he was like - he just crushed them with his steady consistency. He had found something that he could be good at. Because the race was longer than what the kids where used to, it was thought of as the tough race. It helped A even more. The season progressed and so did his self-belief and confidence. People now mentioned his name when talking about running. He practically glowed.
At the end of the season I mentioned what progress he had made to his mother who was sceptical but graciously agreed to indulge me. I wanted to show A that running could also take place off the track. As they lived very close to us I suggested that we met where I took our dogs walking. His mother would walk the trail while we ran ahead with the dogs. Despite him now being a more confident runner it was obvious he had never run outside before. Kids just don't get to explore any more. Hesitant at first he soon revelled in the freedom, jumping over rocks and running through the stream. The dogs barrelling through the long grass next to us amazed him. At the end of the school year I received a hand-made card that explained it all.
A year later he is no longer in my class though has joined my cross-country team. At the age of 10 he wanted to run a trail race. After getting special permission from the organisers, he was allowed to race in the men's 18-29 category. He won. What path he chooses to follow with his running is up to him. But what he does know is that he is good at something. He can run and run until the others fall away. I know that when he looks at a mountain he sees it differently to how he used to. He now wonders if there are tracks that he can run on.
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