Mummeee! I.WANT.TO.WUNN!

After having been told to stop, rest and let my leg heal properly or risk permanent damage, I was looking forward to having a few weeks rising a little later in the mornings. No such luck! Yesterday, my three year old son had other ideas. The first thing he said when he woke up at 6:30am, half an hour earlier than he usually wakes up, was, "Mummeeee! I want to wuunnnnn! I want to wunn with the pushchair!"

I had to clarify, "You want to run with Mummy and the pushchair or you want to sit in the pushchair while Mummy runs?"

"I want to push. I want to push the pushchair really, really fast!"

So, despite my best intentions to follow my physiotherapist's advice, off we trotted. We jogged to the park. He sprinted down the ramp to the underpass and up the other side then we ran along the seafront as the sun came up. We stopped, looked at the boats, watched an aeroplane, he ran ahead fast, slowed down, darted from side to side, picked up a leaf, put it down again and then picked up a stick instead. The whole time, he was oblivious to how fast or how far he was running.  He slowed or stopped to look at anything that took his interest. He chased a bird not caring that he had no chance of catching it. He was so happy!

Once he was tired, he climbed into the pushchair and we walked home.

My leg ached that day, but it was worth it. I couldn't bring myself to stop him running, to put the lid on his excitement and passion. To give him anything but support and encouragement was beyond me.

I wish I could run more like him, just running for fun, because it feels good, noticing details of the surroundings and without measuring speed or distance . I think we should all run more often just for the hell of it, to let go of tension, just because we're lucky enough to be able to, for whatever reason, or no reason at all.