I should let my 12-year-old run the Ragnar for me!

We were on our way back from the store, when my 12-year-old son announced that he needed to run a mile before tomorrow for his Physical Fitness merit badge. He wanted to know if he could use his dad’s GPS watch to track his running. Having used it just this morning, I knew it had died and needed to be charged. I offered to take him to my running course where the mile is marked.

“Do you want to go home and change?” I asked him.

“Na, I’ll  just run in this,” he said. He was wearing shorts that even when he walked he need to hold up with one hand to keep them from hitting the floor. Every time I saw him hitch his pants up, I thought of that song from American Idol, “Pant’s on the Ground.”

I had things to do anyway, so on the way home we stopped at the park and I let him out after some instruction. “Time me,” he said. I looked at the clock 4:34pm. He took off in a full fledge sprint. I sat in the car, watching.  He ran while holding onto his shorts the whole time.

He ran that one-mile course in six minutes. SIX FRIGGIN MINUTES! He returned at 4:40pm, climbed in the car and finished off his Hersey’s bar. “What’s for dinner?” he asked.

I wanted to cry. I am such a loser. What am I doing? Why did I sign up for this race?  WHAT WAS I THINKING? I am an overweight mom, who hates running. I used to tell people, the only time you will see me running is if there is a bear chasing me, AND even then, I may just lie down and let the bear eat me.

I hate this. I hate that I can’t do it. I feel like such a failure and though I still have a little less than three months until the big race, I just don’t know any more. I know I said I was down, but not out. Well, today after running only a half-mile this morning before giving up, I feel out.  I’m starting to feel as though I am  kidding myself here and I should bag the whole thing. Heck, I know a kid who could run my legs in just a little over 20 minutes at the rate he runs—feed him some candy and a coke and he can do it in ten.