The Eye of the Tiger…It’s Hereditary

I may have mentioned once or twice how much I love me some Rocky. When I hear Eye of the Tiger, there’s nothing that I can’t do; swim the English Channel, lift a car off of a small child, take on Apollo Creed and WIN! Oh yeah, it’s that awesome. But as I found out the other day, I am not the only one that gets inspired by this song.


For literally months now, Aaron has been talking about how much he wants to run the Debbie Green 5k with me this year. During the winter he would hop on the treadmill after I was done and “practice” for the race. Now that the race is just weeks away, it’s all he can talk about. I think that it’s fantastic that a six year old has the desire to do a 5k. I mean, I know that I wasn’t thinking about anything like that at six years old. So who am I to tell him that he can’t? My only concern was whether or not he really grasped what 3.1 miles really felt like. We were going to have to do a trial run.

So the other night after dinner, Aaron and I hopped into the van to go down to my parents house where I had mapped out the distance of a 5k through their neighborhood. For inspiration, I put on Eye of the Tiger and he could not…get…enough! We played it over and over and over again during the entire ten minute trip. Once we got there, he was totally pumped and super hyped up with Italian Stallion determination.

We walked a short warm-up and then got to it. That kid is incredible. He ran the entire first half mile at my pace; I almost had to ask him to slow down. The second half mile we walked/ran and when we hit the mile mark we had done it in 14:23. When Mike and I ran last year, our goal was to get in each mile at twelve minutes or less. This six year old did a full mile just two minutes slower than his parents. Awesome doesn’t even begin to describe it.

The next mile we did a combination of mild running and a lot of walking. The last mile we walked, but when it was all said and done we finished in under fifty-five minutes. Aaron completed his first 5k experience in under an hour. I think that’s just absolutely amazing. I have never seen a child so driven in my life. When he puts his mind to something there is no question that he will finish the job and I am so overwhelmingly proud of him that I could just burst.

I loved that this was how the two of us got to spend time together. We got up, got out, and got active. Chatting with him was probably the best part of all and I just know that his will be something that I’ll remember forever. Aaron’s best comment during our 3.1 miles, “Whew, those chicken fingers made me gassy! I just farted back there.” Classic Aaron.

Today I will officially sign up Mike, Aaron, and I for the race. My six year old is going to run in his first 5k…It just doesn’t get any better than that.