Tonight was a special time and the event that happened was an inevitable one, but I was surprised at how soon it came to pass as Paul is 12 years old.
Anyway, we were two groups, our group 4 kids and 4 adults went to the forest behind La Ligniere to do the climbs on the steep paths up from the river. As ever, Paul was constantly out ahead and had to be reigned in from taking the path all the way back to Rolle. I've actually done that with him before, but that's another blog...
We did the hills and ran past a couple with a dog around three times which was a bit weird, as we were looping back to the bottom and coming up a different hill each time. The last one was the wide loop, back to the owl hill which is on my normal Nyon/Rolle route. Over the wooden bridge Paul sprinted off and then slowed so I let of a whoop and tanked past him just fast enough to avoid him catching my shirt and whipped up to the top of the hill with him right on my tail. He left me in no doubt that that had been a seriously embarrassing dad moment. We waited for the group and then it was decided to head back to the sports centre so Paul shot off and I ran with the other boys for a bit. After he was about 200m ahead I decided to try and catch him up.
With just over 1km to go I was closing steadily and sure I could catch him. But as I got to within about 10m he kicked, which surprised me as we were going pretty fast. He pulled away a bit, but I held on and thought that there would be no way he could hold the pace on the bridge. It's a steep humped bridge over the railway and it rises quickly, I try to close a little and Paul just pulls away. I think he'll be finished at the top and I'll get him on the downhill. As we crest the hill he kicks and hammers down the hill. I am now red line and only just keeping in touch. I think he'll need to stop at any moment. But he's got more in the tank, he pushes the flat section hard, taking the racing line out of the bridge, which I miss so he pulls away again. I drag back a couple of metres but it's not enough and now we're sprinting for the car park. Paul gets there a few seconds before me and turns to ask "Did you let me win dad?"
I certainly did not. What a great moment. The last km was done by me in 4:00 and so Paul must have done it in less than that. He told me he knew he had to beat me far from the finish as he was sick of me sprinting past him at the end, so it was a well planned race perfectly executed. Mixed emotions that he's officially now faster than me, but immensely proud of my son.
Since the Olympics Paul ran for 50 consecutive days and did well over 100km. He's improved his speed, his endurance and pacing. All this is great character building stuff and I'm delighted that he's doing something I enjoy and pleased that the student has already surpassed his running jedi master!
Garmin
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