That's a Wrap!

7/17 continued: Running not only does a body good, it does a mind good too.

After my 14-miler, we headed over to the pool for the last day of Regional competition. A swim team mom looked at me and said, "I heard about your run. Gosh, you look so relaxed." I had that glow. Leaving it all out on the pavement will do that to (for?) you.

This shirt from anothermotherrunner.com says it all.

I don't have the shirt (yet) but only because they don't offer this one in a tank top. I need a tank top this time of year!!!

After Evan swam his final Regional event (can't even remember what it was at this point...), we decided to stop by a nearby fro-yo joint for a little treat.

This place was CUTE! And they had peanut butter fro-yo. SCORE!!!

I had an epiphany in the yogurt place. Sort of. Actually, it wasn't so much of an epiphany as it was a decent idea or an experiment, if you will.

The day prior (Saturday) was just rough. Evan shuts down when the water is chillier than his liking. He mentally unravels and the day goes to poop. So what do we do when he starts crying and carrying on? We kind of kick him when he's down, telling him things like, "It's not cold," and "You're being a bit ridiculous/dramatic," and "Stop complaining." Does that really work? No. He still thinks the water is cold, he's still dramatic and he still complains.

But you know, I think as people (i.e. mothers), we do that to ourselves anyway. You have a bad day, so you skip your workout. Or you overeat. Or you snap at the kids. Or you pick up happy meals at McDonald's for dinner. And then what? You continue to berate yourself about it. You kick yourself when you're down. Then, guess what? You get so used to that mentality that you kick your kids when they're down.

I wanted to use this opportunity where everyone was HAPPY to my sneaky little advantage.

Me: "Evan, look at my foot after my run." (This would be my L mangled foot with the GINORMOUS fluid-filled blister, bruised big toenail, cut on second toe from jagged third toenail stabbing it on runs, contusion under third toenail which bleeds on every run and completely white (dead?) 4th toenail... sexy).

Evan: "Gross. Does it hurt?" (mostly talking about my new blister...)

Me: "It doesn't feel good, but it's part of running. "

Evan: (pause) "Well, why don't you just stop running?"


Hmmmm. He has a point. DAMNIT!


Me: "I don't want to. I like running. This kind of thing is just part of it. Kind of like the cold pool. If you want to be an athlete, sometimes you just have to kind of deal with stuff like this. It's just how it is."


Evan: "Oh." (dives back into yogurt)

Ok, maybe I planted a seed. Or something like that. What's smaller than a seed? Maybe I planted that.

Or not.

At any rate, the afternoon went muuuuuuuuuuuuuuch better than Saturday.

Of course I didn't take any pictures because I was wrangling kids.

I should have though! Evan's last event was a 50m breaststroke against kids upwards of 6 years older than him. He was placed in his heat based on his best time.

This is crazy to me! (and he thought it was so cool that he had beaten a 13-year old's time in a previous meet)

It was funny watching him on the starting blocks. Most of the kids were literally twice his size (he's 50 pounds). I so wish I had gotten a picture!!!! Unfortunately, the camera was in the car and I had just stuck my hand in a giant buttcrack full of poop checking to see if Colin had soiled his diaper.

Um, yes he had. And of course I did this about 2 minutes before the start of Evan's event. So there I was cheering with a thumbnail full of feces.

Evan finished last in the heat but still managed to hang with the big boys. He wasn't far behind!!!! (Peaked too soon this year... bummer)

He finished happy. Back to (trash) talking about how he's going to be the best swimmer in the world someday. I love it.

And that is a wrap for both the weekend and for summer swimming...