National Running Day

Today is National Running Day and what a day it was! I woke up and saw online this image:

And it got me to thinking. First things first I struggled to simplify and put into words why I run, how I run, what I run for and all those things. I decided to try not to over think and so I posted the following to my instagram:

Then I thought, what if I print the template off and give it to the kids. What would they write?

You see, being a teacher runner I try to inspire the kids with my love of running. My colleague and I started an after school run club for grades 3-8. We run it by a sign up basis on Tuesday nights. We run the kids down residential areas behind our school or over on the local track. We even take them down different trails. In fact, just last night we discovered a new and beautiful trail not far from the school. It ran down in a ravine with beautiful embankments and a river running alongside. We even saw a deer go running by. What a great experience it has been running with children. So I presented this "I run..." prompt to the kids in run club. (From my teacher hat it was also a great chance to work on their "because" statements urging them to support their statements).

I then took pictures of each beautiful child holding their response. I can't post those, though I'd love to. I made a collage of them and posted them in the school.

 Upon reading them all I came to some conclusions about running. I laughed at the responses from my two runner colleagues. They too found it challenging to properly respond to the prompt:

 But the kids, especially the young ones, their responses seemed lack lustre and not creative in the least. I found the predominance of the Grade 3s wrote all along the lines of:

Then I realized, this is exactly why kids run. They run because its fun, end of story. They enjoy doing it so they do it. Couldn't we all learn a little from the pure simplicity of children running? 

My grade 4/5s extended their responses a little and added in things like the following:

 Not only because it's fun, but because its "healthy" and it makes them strong. These are not things they have learned from experience, these are things they have learned from others, namely me. It's interesting how they get to an age where they start to listen, learn and apply. (proud teacher!!)

And the highlight proud moment was this one: the beautiful child that likes run club for the opportunity to spend more time with her teacher, me! Children naturally idolize the important people in their life and want to be just like them, whatever that may be.

I am thankful for the chance to be a positive role model (the best I can be) in these kids lives. Happy National Running day from this teacher runner!