On a weekend when I was reminded that being a dad is far more important than being anything else, I found myself brisling with joy.
On Saturday morning I was getting slightly agitated by the fact that my planned “Runsploring” adventure was to be cut short. It was the day of our daughter’s dance show and I was the designated taxi driver, drop-off, pick-up and errand runner all rolled into one and with a starting time of 10am I needed to be back from my run no later than 8.30am.
I headed out up the valley on the canal towpath with a totally different destination in my head. The dog and my legs weren’t exactly playing ball for the first few miles and it took some serious head-splaining to quieten the crazy chimp. He’s got a number of different names, the chimp I’m talking about, and most of them are ‘not for broadcast’ but generally he gets called Steve (a name I gave myself as a child when I played at being a car mechanic underneath the covers of my bed). Part of this explaining entailed a new route plan because Steve wasn’t in the mood for March Haigh and Cupwith, so a trip down memory lane and a diversion via some of the Colne Valley MTB Challenge route did the trick.
We took in some urban trails on our return and we still managed to cobble together a good 10.5 miles. And despite some faffing around, got home just 4 minutes over at 8.34am.
Our daughter’s dance show was very good, actually Proud Dad moment #1, she performed better than we’ve ever seen her perform and as she’s now 15 and has been performing since she was 2 1/2, this is quite a statement. She somehow found the ability to discard all her inhibitions and flowed through every piece seamlessly and was, in our humble opinion, the best dancer of the evening in her group.
As my Saturday run was cut short I was really looking forward to stretching the legs a little further on Sunday, alas this too quickly dissolved into a pipedream and my curfew for being home was 9am. I exchanged the run for a hike and took Doggo out for 5-miles to clear my head. It was during this walk that I made up my mind that the promised run out with our youngest son (12), was definitely going to happen once I’d finished my other errands after my return.
We laced up our trail shoes and set off! As with nearly every runner ever, he set off too quickly and very quickly realised that slow and steady was going to be order of the day. His first ever sighting of a kingfisher, nearly 2 trail miles and few moments of breathless walking and a trail runner was born. He absolutely loved it, as can be seen on the smile on his face here. Proud Dad moment #2
So this weekend has been a wonderful reminder that hardly ever does anything happen the way you want it to go, but it does happen the way it should. Another great learning that life just gives you exactly what is needed for the moment you are in, and new beginnings will happen no matter how old or young you are.
