Day 26 of Juneathon - went running with my 16 year old son and I couldn't keep up at the end!

For the first time I went out for a run with my 16 year old son today. We set out at a slow to moderate  pace with Fleet pulling us along.  My son was soon running very comfortably in what was a very hot morning and we chatted as we ran though the fields.  After about a mile I asked him how far he wanted to run, I described the various routes and he decided on the five mile run.  The furthest he had run previously was the cross-country at school which we think was between two and three miles. 

We ran the first 2.5 miles non stop. At the half way point we turned around immediately and I suggested we could run the second half faster for a negative split.  We started running faster and then my son asked if we could run faster still, so we upped the pace again!  At this stage poor Fleet (our dog) was slowing a bit in the heat so we stopped off at a stream with a lovely deep pool that he could swim in - it looked very inviting to us too. 

After Fleet had enjoyed a bit of stick retrieving and had cooled down, we set off for the remainder of the run which was just over a mile.  My son suggested running faster still, which we did. Then in the last half a mile he said can we run even faster!  Well I did try to keep up but he was just too fast and he ran ahead for the last two to three hundred metres - it was definitely a negative split! 

I am very pleased to say that my son is very keen to continue running and now has his sights on the school cross-country race at the end of the year.  I think this is going to help my running too, I am under no illusion that I will be able to keep up with him but I do think that running with my son is going to push my running and it's fun too :-)

My Juneathon total is now higher than Janathon at 172 miles.  Fleet has now run 23 miles and my middle son 5 miles.  It's also my oldest son's last exam in sixth form today ... no more secondary school! :-)