"You know when you run faster, it helps me too, right?"
"It does? But I'm not beating you..."
"Yeah...but if I was sprinting by myself, I wouldn't go nearly as fast as if I was running with someone on my tail. You're just enough behind me that I can hear you running, so it makes me go faster to stay ahead. If you were running next to me, I'd be pushing to beat you. I'm just ahead of you, so you're trying to catch me. That's how we get faster."
* * * * *
So over the weekend, S and I were training in the park, and it was getting pretty dark. I asked him what he wanted to finish with, and he immediately said "sprints".
Dangit. I should've known. The kid loves to run, plus he's really peeved that he hasn't beaten me at the straight sprints yet.
I myself, hate running. Loathe it. I find it to be the most painful, boring form of exercise and avoid it at all costs. I could spar for a half hour, do kicking drills for 2 hours - but I can't run for more than 1o minutes straight without wanting to collapse. Strangely enough, I don't mind sprints so much...but let's just say it's not my favorite part of training.
I find it half amusing and half insulting that he got so upset the first time we did sprints and he lost. Granted, his legs are getting longer, and he's always used to be the fastest in class - but I think he just thought I was that slow. (Aw man, I'm kinda sad...) So now he's got an agenda to "get good" at sprints - which means, to beat me.
That's fine with me - good for him to set his own goals, and it won't be long before he's taller and stronger than me. So last week it was just the two of us running. On the last set, he stayed with me about halfway down the soccer field before I pulled out. I think he was a little bummed, but when we talked about it, he realized that this is how we push eachother to be better.
I was thinking about that tonight as we ran our sprints. Both boys were there tonight, and we each have a definite pace that we max out at. In an attempt to push each other to run as fast as we each can, we measured out distances for each of us to start from, so that by the last 10 meters, we'd all be struggling to cross the finish line at the same time.
I guess it's the best/worst for me, because I'm in the middle. About 5 yards behind S but 5 yards in front of A. So I have to gun it to catch S, but I'm also pushed by A on my tail, and struggling to stay ahead of him before he eventually passes me. S gets less discouraged if he's not playing catchup from the get-go, and it forces A to not be complacent in his lead.
It's kind of the way life and relationships are, though. I'm learning that you can't box people in by age or status or what-not. In general you can, but specifically...not always. Sometimes you have to adjust the way your "race" plays out, so that both or every person is really being challenged and pushed to be the best they can be - but it is possible for people who are at different "levels" to be effective teammates and spur one another on. The three of us ran pretty darn fast tonight...and I think we'll keep getting faster. At least, faster than we would ever get training alone.
No complacency. Press on.
Do you not know that in a race, all the runners run but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way to get the prize. -1 Cor. 9:24
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