We were driving to Park Run recently and I turned to the Kid in the passenger seat and told her that she shouldn’t feel any obligation to hold back with me.
She was notably quiet with her objections. In fact, she didn’t object.
In the few months since she has taken up the sport she has locked in her training, got in her runs, and been getting increasingly faster and stronger. Having only vague memories of my own initial training in my early thirties its tough to compare—but I’m pretty sure that her being just nineteen years old has given her a few fitness advantages over both early running me, and me now at nearly five-oh.
In other words, she’s getting fast, by noticeable measures.
I didn’t want to hold her back out of some weird obligation for hanging out and running with the “old man” because after all we had been to Park Run together a few times already, I’d imparted my wisdom upon her (as limited as that was) and we’d taken a few commemorative selfies to mark her entry into the sport. Now was the time for her to see what she might be capable of.
She was ahead of us within the first five steps off the start, and became little more than a blur in the distance ahead of me. She didn’t win. She didn’t place. She didn’t even get the top position in her age group. But she sure as heck outran me… and I had my best five klicks of the season.
I’m torn between a lot of emotions, but I think I’ll settle on proud dad. Being crushed by the next generation is just part of it all, huh?
Definitions
- august
- In the month of August where I live summer peaks and the days are often relatively hot (in the high 20s or low 30s) muggy, smokey and dry. Rain is infrequent, but when it arrives it comes in the form of drenching downpours and epic thunderstorms. We begin our runs earlier in the day because the local marathon runs late in the month and our training distances are maxing.
- five-oh
- I started running when I was barely thirty-ish. I was a bit overweight and out of shape, but young. Twenty years later I started writing this blog on the edge of turning 50. Five. Oh. And running at that age, even when you've been doing it for twenty years, is a whole new game.
- klick
- As a Canadian I run in metric. As a writer, I find the word kilometre clunky and clinical. I'll usually use the colloquial "klick" or "klicks" to substitute in for this.
- october
- Fully into autumn, October is a month of shifting seasons, short days, long shadows, and gorgeous sunsets. The cobwebs are hung on the eaves in preparation for halloween, and here in Canada we're running off Thanksgiving dinner for a couple weeks after a proper good meal mid-month.
- park run
- Just go online and find one. Every Saturday all over the world people meet up with their barcodes in hand to run a free semi-competitive five klick run, each local event locked to a route and run by volunteers. It's huge in the UK, but we've got a growing list in Canada and I logged one in Japan in 2025. I am slowly working my way to a milestone.
- september
- The days are noticeably shorter when we realize that September is upon us. The post-summer routine kicks in and people are back to regular work schedules and kids are back in school. It can still be warm, but the hottest days are behind us and most of the biggest races of the year are in the rear view. We savour September knowing winter is too soon to come.
- the kid
- I'm father to a daughter who has often been mentioned in my writing. She's an adult now, but I'm still not going to dox her on this or any site. She'll remain as anonymous as I can make her and you shall only know her as "The Kid"
