Thankful - Day 23

My sister and some friends on Facebook are doing "Thirty Days of Thankful" for the month of November. Each day they are posting something in their lives for which they are grateful. I decided to do the same, but will write it here instead.

Day 23

Today I went running with the kids.  I took each of them out individually for a short run.  It was a beautiful, sunny day and I loved getting a little exercise and a little one-on-one with each of them. I told them that I didn't care how fast we went or how much we walked, but we needed to keep moving.   First Devin and I went and he was dancing along to Gangnam Style as we made it through the neighborhood.  He was the least excited about our running date, but still made the best of it and of course sprinted his hardest to try to leave me at the end. 
Next I took Isabel, and she totally surprised me.  First, she ran over a mile (although there was some walking included) and second, she averaged a fourteen minute mile!  When we ran her race in September, she ran the mile in sixteen and some change.  It was awesome!  Isabel chose not to run with music, so we could talk.  She loved telling me where we should go and just chattered away throughout the run.  She even held my hard for part of it.  I loved it.
Finally I went with Alex, who is a natural runner.  He's long and lean, and he just naturally has better running form than I do.  Alex was enjoying his music and doing more running than walking.  He ran up the long hill out of our neighborhood at a 10:05 pace.  I was shocked.  We walked a bit after that, and then he took off again.  At one point he was running an 8:30 pace, which is about the pace that I ran my 8k on Thanksgiving Day.  Then he got a side stitch.  We walked and talked about all kinds of things; running strategy (I shared my approach of nice and easy until the end, then sprint), music, our plans for the day.  Alex finished strong and wound up running longer and faster than the other two. 
Today I am thankful that I can share running with my kids.  I am thankful for the one-on-one time with them and I am grateful that they are willing to get out and move with me.