Sunday, November 20, 2011

MARATHON-The Mummy Run





Today I ran for an hour and ten minutes.

My daughter, 7, plays tennis. Generally I drop her off at her courts and run on the track alongside at the club where she plays. Or I hop across to the gym (which is also at the club) and run on the treadmill. When I run on the track, my daughter is half proud of Mummy heffalumping away in plain sight of all her buddies and half e...mbarrassed.

Generally her brother, 3, stays home and plays in the park or rides his bike. Today, because there was no one home to look after him (long story – some other time), he had to be dragged along for tennis. When I settled him down on the chairs near the courts with his toys and his books and asked him if I could run on the half km track, he nodded agreeably.

So I took off.

Exactly one minute later, I heard a wailing keening cry. When I turned around he was coming after me like a bullet. Mummy, mummy mummy, you wicked girl, I’m so scared, don’t leave me, he wept burrowing into my vest. Please don’t go where I cant see you

Sometimes a mum’s got to do what a mum’s got to do.


I ran for 70 minutes straight.

Except, instead of running the half-kilometer loop where I would have been out of his sight for quite a few stretches, I ran only along the length of the courts.

A distance of maybe 20 metres. Back and forth, back and forth.

Passing him playing in the mud every 7 seconds. Admiring the leaves he collected and throwing away the beer bottle shards he found from somewhere. Pulling a band aid off his finger as I ran, “because its getting too dirty to play with mummy”.

I ran for 70 minutes basically circling my son. Before I could get into my stride, I had to turn around and come right back. I ran without knowing how much distance I covered. I ran though I made myself giddy with the blink and you have to turn around loop. I ran despite the fact that my daughter rolled her eyes up at me every time I looked, because she thought I looked “so weird”.

It looked weird because it was weird. It was a really really weird run. The mummy run.

It was also the happiest run I’ve run in a long long while. - Anonymous

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