Dizzle's first two miler ...

As you may recall, on April 30th, Dizzle is running her first 5K. After her rock star performance, two weeks ago at the VA 529 Kid's Mile, I asked her if she wanted to run a longer race. At first, she was hesitant. But, when I told her we would run/walk the race, she quickly jumped on-board.

Now, I realize that a 5K is a lot longer than a mile. And I know that two weeks isn't ample time to train. But, it gets hot here in Virginia and I decided that a chance at a cooler race with less training was a better option than a guaranteed hot race with decent training (I would feel differently if she was an adult, but she's 5).

Plus, Dizzle has two things working for her ...

1. She can run for about 15 minutes without stopping.
2. She has walked more than three miles at a single time on several occasions.

Because of that, I KNOW she can cover the distance. The challenge is convincing her that she's strong enough to run a lot of it. (Dizzle's a bit of a whiner.)

Yesterday, I decided to get an idea of her endurance. So, at the hottest time of day (because I am nice like that), I put Doodle and Dilly in my double stroller and told Dizzle to get her shoes on. She did, and we started running. 4 minutes running, 1 minute walking. I told Dizzle nothing except that she had four minutes until we could walk. No mention of total time or distance.

And it went really well. Sure, she whined at moments (I swear our elderly neighbors thought what I was doing was a form of child abuse. I call it tough love). And she constantly asked how much longer she had to run. But she did it. We covered the two mile route in 25:44.

Afterward, she was tired (obviously), but she recovered quickly and due to the fact that she was singing/talking to me the entire run, I know she will be fine over that final mile. Once we got back inside, I asked Dizzle to show me what two miles looks like. Here's what she gave me ...

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's pride on her face.