Saturday 3 November 2007

I hate football....

I am starting to do my longer runs now and today I was scheduled to run 6 miles. Of course I had to set my alarm this morning to be up in time to take the boys to football. We have had to buy another car because, as today, sometimes one is playing in one town and the other somewhere completely different. We move Heaven and Earth for these boys to do their activities. It seems to me that I am purely a taxi service for them. Still, that is the cry of many a parent and most of the time I am ok doing it. I wouldn't want them to give up any of their sport.

Still, today made me realise that I have to be firmer and more organised with all this. If I am going to be able to complete my long runs I am going to have to sort these boys out. We did their football, but then only had an hour between coming home and my husband going off to play his match. By the time he comes back it will be dark and too late for me to go out. The boys were determined to stay home and watch the Arsenal game on telly.

We decided that I would go out to do my 6 miles and
a) hope to be back before my Man left.
b) ask my neighbour to watch the boys for the 15 minutes it would probably take between him leaving and me arriving home.
c) just leave the boys by themselves for 15 minutes.

Well, I wasn't happy with any of those options, but my Man persuaded me that the boys would be fine ( it turned out that my neighbour was away ) Off I ran, having mapped my route. I felt great physically, but my head was full of worry. I got lost almost immediately and although I found my way back on track I was thinking " How long will that have added to my time ?"

I was soooooooo pissed off. So I headed home. What is the point of a long run if you are just not in the right place in your head ? I have to think of my boys and I can't just leave them, even for 15 minutes. What if I got run over ? Or got lost again ? Or fell and hurt myself ?

I ended up running just over 4 miles. I am lucky to be ahead of the game with my training so I can repeat this week and do my 6 miler next Saturday. I have to think positively about this. I will use it to sure up my strength. But I told all 3 of my boys ( hubbie included ) that from now on I am doing my long runs on a Saturday. They either all go to football together or I sort out child care in advance. I am not having this " Oh I want to watch football on tv. I don't want to go out " ( said in a wheedly voice )

I move Heaven and earth so that my running doesn't interfere with their lives and I spend a whole lot of my life ensuring they get to do everything they want. From now on they will just have to let me have Saturday afternoons. So there.

2 comments:

FarmWife said...

Can I just say you rock? Really! I can't run to the mail box & you want to run 6 miles on your day off!!

Sue said...

Good for you, get them men in order! It seems you've worked out a good compromise :-)