Jade in the middle, cooling down with friends after running half a mile

On Saturday May 16th, at 7:45am in the morning, young Jade and I headed over to the Risner running track on Kadena Airbase. The organization known as America’s Kids Run was hosting its annual run for kids of active duty parents, and Jade was not going to miss out on this event. I could be wrong, but I’m certain that my love of sports is something that has inherently been passed on to my little girl.

At age three, Jade took part in her first running event; it was the Junior Carlsbad and she entered the Toddler Trot which was basically no more than a 1/4 mile dash, if that. I ran that race with her and I’m ashamed to say that my well-intentioned advice to ”just have fun,” was swept away in the dust remnants of our speedy take-off. I’m not sure we can justify her second-place win as a legitimate win, as one of the professional photographs taken shows both her feet off the ground as I’m whisking her along by her hand.

Jade carrying her "finisher's bag" after completing the Junior Carlsbad

At age four Jade participated in the Keebler Kids Mile, a “non-competitive” mile run held at Legoland in San Diego. Knowing that I probably wouldn’t be able to resist the urge to keep up with the front-runners, I handed Jade over to my father and my mother-in-law who were both eager to run alongside her, and walk if necessary. I’m not sure what happened out there on the course, but when I saw the three of them come flying around the final bend toward the finish line, it was obvious that they hadn’t received the memo about the event being “non-competitive.” Poor little Jade (and grandparents) were exhausted, but I could tell that Jade’s grandparents had tasted the same gratifying sweetness that I had tasted when Jade and I crossed the line in the Junior Carlsbad. Maybe the genes on both sides of the family were fished out of the “competitive” pool because no matter how hard we try to conform to the “just have fun” premise, it never seems to happen.

Jade racing toward the finish line with Pa and Grandma

Jade sporting her medal

Or maybe there is hope after all; maybe little Jade is the one who will show her so-called adult role models (aka parents and grandparents), what it is to be competitive in a sensible way. She suprised me at the America’s Kids Run; she did what I didn’t expect her to do. When the official announcement was made to “Get Set & Go,” Jade took off at a mad pace with all the other kids vying to take the lead, but she quickly eased back and settled into a pace that she was capable of maintaining for a full half mile. At five years old, she not only completed the half mile distance set for her age group,  but she completed it comfortably and well ahead of many other boys and girls in her division. In fact, she even had enough energy reserved to go out and run another half mile after taking a quick water break. I wonder if she would have had any energy left had she been accompanied by certain unnamed family members?

I’m just so proud of my little Jade. She ran her first race on her own and demonstrated the kind of self-restraint and discipline that resulted in a successful and  enjoyable run. Quite often I find myself rationalizing my answers to Jade’s childishly analytical questions with the all-too-common “because Momma knows best.” And every once in a while, I am quietly impressed (and humbled) when I see that sometimes it’s actually little Jade who knows best!