So every once in a while (maybe even more than that 
), you can learn a lesson or two from your kid. I learned one yesterday. My daughter runs XC. She runs for the fun of it. She runs to spend time with her friends. She runs to get better. She could care less what place she comes in. That is not the point for her.
I watched her run her first race of the season yesterday. She ran in the girls varsity race, and she looked great. She ran fast- 21 minutes for a 5k race. For those who don’t run, that is a 3.1 mile race, so she ran just a hair faster than a 7 minute pace for 3 ish miles. I would love to be able to do that! She was psyched, because it was more than a minute faster than her best race, last season!
She came in dead last.
And I am not talking about a couple of seconds behind. She was probably 10 seconds behind the next to last place finisher. I felt so bad that she had come in last. I wasn’t sure what to say, so I said “Nice Race”! My response in that situation would have been a tirade on how bad I did, and I would have obsessed over it for days. Her response- “Thanks- it was a PR! That’s what I set out to do, and I did it and I felt great”! Later, I asked if she was bummed that she came in last in her race, and her response to that was “No- what do I care? I’m fine with it. I don’t need to prove anything, except beat my own time”.
I want to be like her. She runs for the right reasons. She runs for the fun of it. She runs to spend time with her friends. She runs to get better. She is totally comfortable with her self, and she is the coolest kid I know.
I’m fifty. She’s 15. And yet, yesterday, she was the teacher.
