Category — son

The first of the year dawned cold and windy.  It was 17 degrees, but that didn’t stop my friend Larry and I from doing our annual 1^st day of the year run.  We had a pleasant two loops of Prospect Park to ourselves as it appeared that the cold, previous evening’s festivities or combination thereof kept almost everyone out of the park.  I don’t think we passed more than 5 other runners. 

After the run we went home to get ready for the annual Coney Island Polar Bear Dip into the Atlantic Ocean.  This was without a doubt the highlight of my day, specifically because my 8 year old son decided to come with me and take a dip into the ocean as well.  I can’t express how proud I am of my little man.  It was 17 degrees outside and the water temperature was in the low 40’s and the kid tore off his clothes and dragged me into the water.  He was excited, laughing and had eyes shining bright with excitement.

The place was a mob scene and it was difficult to make our way through the crowd into the water.  We ran in holding hands and with adrenaline flowing.  I looked at my son and asked if he was ready to dunk himself.  He shook his head yes and then on the count of 3 we dunked our heads below the surface of the water.  It was bone chilling cold, so we didn’t hang around and started to run back to our blankets.

The crowd was even thicker at this point and we had a tough time finding our blanket.  To make matters worse, I wasn’t wearing my glasses, so I could see hardly anything.  I felt bad as I could tell my son was really cold and wanted his towel.  We probably found it within a minute, but it certainly felt longer.  Both our hands and feet were really cold and it was a struggle to get him dressed.  I had hand and toe warmers and I put them in his gloves and shoes to help warm him up.

Fortunately, while at the beach I met up with @brujitalinda.  She was there with a friend who wasn’t doing the dup and was kind enough to take pictures of me and my son on the beach.    @brujitalinda looked stunning in her bikini and was adorned with her New Year’s resolutions written on her body.  Perhaps next year I will do the same.

 On the way home from the beach, my son rested in the back seat, laying down across it with his cold feet pressed against the bare flesh of my stomach.  They were nice and cold and he found it infinitely amusing as I complained about his cold feet pressing against me.  When we got home, we both took warm baths and then went back out to Larry’s house for post Dip festivities.  We drank his wife’s delicious Hot Toddies and equally delicious Chili.  All totaled it was a great start for the New Year.

 

Tuesday night was the first snowfall of the year and I went running in it. It was my regularly scheduled Tuesday night run with my friend Larry and I don’t think either of us would have missed it for anything. It’s so much fun to be out at night during a snowstorm. The world looks different, is all quiet and has a dreamlike quality to it. I will admit that running in several inches of snow is a lot tougher that running on dry pavement, but the extra work only added to the enjoyment of the run.

I wasn’t sure whether I should do this run as my shin is really starting to bother me. The snow outside, erased any doubts though as I really wanted to run in it. The snow lightened the impacts of my footfalls and was actually a help in that respect – it made the running easier on my shin. We practically had the park to ourselves and put in a strong 9 mile effort. The ground was slippery at times and the snow slowed our pace considerably. I remarked that when we completely two loops of the park, we were seriously behind schedule. It didn’t matter though, as it was just so nice to be out in the snow.

I would say that running in the snow was the best part of my day. However, after I came in from my run, I spent some time with my son wrestling in the living room. He has been on a huge wrestling kick lately and begs me to wrestle him every time I am around. Later, when I was tucking him into bed, I asked him about school, what he did and what was his favorite part of the day. This was the fateful question. He replied that his favorite part of the day was wrestling me just a few minutes earlier. This sent a stab through my heart as I suddenly felt bad about spending the time out of the house running. But it also melted my heart to hear that the best part of my son’s day was wrestling with his dad. My son just knows the right things to say to tear me apart emotionally. I just love that boy so much. I just wish I didn’t feel as though I am sacrificing time away from my children when I go out to do my training. It feels as though I could never do too much for them and what I do is never enough. I suppose that is part of being a parent. God I love my children.