Teresa, I'll give you a similiar story, but with a different twist on it. My two sons 1 1/2 yrs apart, were very active and "aggressive in sports". As such, from the time they were 4 and 5, I was into coaching "T" ball, llittle league, basketball, soccor, also got into umpiring andd referrying all those sports up through 6th grad and coached soccor while they were both through 8th grade. As such it was nothing for me to spend 6-7 days a weeek, week after week involved in sports with them. Later they both ended up giving up all of that and both got involved in running and were pretty good at it. The youngest was running in college and was the inducement for me to begin running to surprise him. The funny part of the story comes from my oldest son as he and I were working in the yard together one day when they were of high school age. My son said to me, "It's about time you got to finihing this project dad!" I stopped and leaned on the shovel and said to him, "Yeph you're right, instead of all that time I spent at the ball fields, all I really had to do was open the front door and tell you both to go for a run!" He laughed and started shoveling harder.

HOORAY, Cheffy! You will love your Garmin. It sure makes you slow down when you need to! Waytogomom, we've found running to be a great sport for our kids. They're not aggressive at sports, either. I would tell them to go for the ball in soccer, but they just didn't have that killer instinct! They'd run up and down the field quite well, but not be very involved in offense OR defense, lol. Running is much better for them. It's also a nice way to avoid all the politics that happen on a lot of teams in our town. Good luck to you both in your races! 4 of the 5 us in our family are running a 5k this Sunday - oldest son can't since he's in the middle of outdoor track season, and he is already racing the mile and two-mile every week.

Cheffy, what a compliment! That is really cool. I'm still surprised when people come up to me and say something like that, or ask me for ADVICE! Me?!? LPH, that's funny about your kids, how much time you could have saved! I've decided to let my 10-year-old daughter concentrate on running and not do soccer in the fall. It will be the first fall in probably 10 years that we will have our Saturdays free!!!!! Whoo hoo! I just need to make sure she doesn't run too much, but she seems to be regulating herself pretty well. Did your youngest son enjoy running in college? I think my oldest (15-year-old sophomore) will probably do that, if he continues to improve (4:41 in mile and 10:12 in two-mile right now).

Terasa, My youngest son loved running in grade school and high school, but did not enjoy it as much in college. He was plaque by illness his freshman year, then transferred schools and had to sit out a year. Although a very coachable kid, he hated his new college coach and only ran one CC season and seeing as it was the same coach, did not do track. Seeing as he was at a local College, tutition was manageable for us and we supported his decision to drop his scholarship and concentrate on his studies. The result, he graduated from University of CT with a 3.8+ GPA, was highly recruited by all of the big accounting firms and doing great. I won't bore everybody and brag about him here unless people want to hear it. I will say though, that if your daughter does like to run, you should look into JR Olympics. Our son took us on some great trips to compete in them (well we took him, but he earned the spots). LPH, that's funny about your kids, how much time you could have saved! I've decided to let my 10-year-old daughter concentrate on running and not do soccer in the fall. It will be the first fall in probably 10 years that we will have our Saturdays free!!!!! Whoo hoo! I just need to make sure she doesn't run too much, but she seems to be regulating herself pretty well. Did your youngest son enjoy running in college? I think my oldest (15-year-old sophomore) will probably do that, if he continues to improve (4:41 in mile and 10:12 in two-mile right now).

Teresa, well let's see. I think at 13 he was the CT Champion in the 13-14 year old grouping. He qualified for Nationals each year he competed. In our trips to Nationals, we have been to South Carolina, Lincoln Nebraska, Chicago Illinois, Atlanta GA and Reno Neveada. Regionals took us to all over New England and NY (NY is thrown into our region) He did this all as an individual and only participated on a J.O. team one year which was a big hazzle. In high school, he was in the top five in CC as a freshman and was scoring points both there and in Track (5K and 3200) He was a multiple ALL-Star as well as Scholastic athelete. He made States in both CC and Track each year. Unfortunately for him cold weather always made him sick by the end of CC season he would usually get bronchitis and or strep throat. Finally in College we finally convinced DRs to remove his tonsils and he has never really been sick since. His SR year of high school, he set his school track records for the 1600M, 800M, 3200M and the 5K and won league gold medals in the mile, 800M and 800M relay. Two years ago the summer after college and before he went into his full time profession, he was one of the top runners in the state of CT, especially the Northwest corner of the State, winning just about everything he entered which included, 1 mile 5K, 5M, 10K and even won a mini triathelon. If you read my blog, you'll see that he inspired me to run and I did it to surprise him. I know that he appreciates the effort the work and the dedication it takes to do, no matter at what level you are.

Teresa, After your comment about seeng the CT kids, I had ot peak to see where you were form. Been to Maine a couple of times with him to compete in JR Olympic Regionals. Once or twice for CC and once for Track. Yeah, CT has developed some pretty elite runners. Unfortunately, my son never made it to HS New England Regionals. Both his JR and SR years, he was sick and had poor runs at the local regionals. If I remember right, you said your son is a sophmore, and he's running 50 miles a week. Truthfully, I think it's too much. I've seen so many kids burn out or injure themselves trying to run at the high pace and high mileage. Is he running on a schedule form a coach or just something on his own? I know what you mean about speed compared to them. My son was finishing 5Ks in under 16 and I'd be just about at the 2 mile mark. But you're right, it's great to seek out advice form him and share my accomplishments. To say to my wife that I just finished a 6.5 mile run with a 7:10 mile last night meant just about nothing to her, my son will understand and then tell me that I shouldn't be running that hard at the end of a run. also speaking of Maine. My wife had a patient in her Assisted Living facility that at one time set the mile record in Maine. He just passed away a few weeks ago from Lou Gerigs disease. A really nice guy, she used to go and visit him on her own time. I'll have to get his name (it was Al Whitmore I think) and year of it, might be something interresting to look up.

LPH, my son is following the direction from his XC / track coach. 50 is the maximum he does - other weeks it's 40. His coach has had a lot of experience and has an excellent reputation, so I just let him tell my son what to do. My main concern is that my son is a perfectionist and works way too long on some school assignments, so he doesn't get enough sleep. It's hard for these kids - they work hard all day, have practices or meets after school, and then have to do homework at night. He puts too much pressure on himself (I wish he could give some of that self-motivation to his younger brother!). I might e-mail his coach to see what thoughts he has. It's cool you've been to Maine! A guy just ran a sub-4 mile in Maine last fall, for the first time ever.

Thanks, LPH!

dick quax came to speak at a dinner i was at recently. he was the 5k world record holder (13:12.9) in the 70s. as part of his speech he mentioned the 100mile weeks he (and many of his peers) ran at 16 yrs old. in those days that was completely normal for high school track and XC teams. he strongly encouraged our talented club juniors who were at the dinner - mostly in their mid to late teens - to up their mileage.

Wow, that's interesting, Mandy. I guess there are different schools of thought. 100 miles?!? When did they have time for homework?