Red Rover, Red Rover, Let Kiah Come Over

Kiah, at age four, would stop, get a determined look on her face, ball her hands into fists, take a runner’s stance, and say, “I'm gonna do Rover.  Mark, Set, Go!” Then she’d zip off.

Rover? We were mystified. Who or what was Rover? Her explanations didn't make sense. She did this for years and we didn't know why.

At age 16, she saw me showing an Amazing Bible video to my Sunday School class. Her face brightened, and she said with nostalgia, “Rover.”

 

At long last, a clue. She said the mouse in the movie was named Rover and ran everywhere.

Ah ha! The mouse named Revver liked to run and she liked to run. Her four-year-old brain had heard Rover, hence the years of confusion.

Mystery solved. Case closed.

She still runs, mostly alone since the rest of us don't want to, and often at night, which worries her parents, but she’s 22 so what can we do?

Last year she set her sights on running the local fall Whistlestop Marathon. I tried talking sense to her.

         

“Honey, that’s so far.” (Duh!)

“You’ve never done one before.” (Double Duh!) 
“Why don’t you start out with something shorter? Like a 5k or a 10k?”

Not to be dissuaded, she found a running partner, and forged ahead.

I’ll let her finish the post. 

Rover signing in here.

I was 12 the first time I realized that I could run.  Being homeschooled we didn’t have a fancy gym at our disposal for PE class, so Mom frequently took us outdoors for afternoon walks.  Our rural roads were straight and graveled.  Most of Iowa’s roads are on a mile grid system so each country block has a four mile circumference. 

Rather than go around the four mile block, we usually walked south on a there-and-back route.  Landmarks along the way marked certain distances.  When we got to the creek, I knew we had walked a half mile.  One day I wanted to see if I could run home from the creek. 

To my great surprise I actually did it!?  The excitement and astonishment left me breathing hard at the end of our driveway, waiting for the rest of the family to catch up, and it also started me on a decade of running that I don’t think anyone expected. 

I ran year round all through junior high and high school.  Freshman year of track was a lot of fun, and by the end of the season I had reached my goal time for the 800 meter. 

400 Meter Hurdles (I'm in the black and red)

My sophomore year I decided to log 300 miles before track season started because I was determined to better my 800 time.  I made my 300 mile quota, and in my first track meet, I bested my fastest 800 time from the previous year by ten seconds!  I will never forget how good it felt to be told after my race how much I’d improved.  Again, I did it.  I actually did it!  The hard work of running in subzero January and February weather had actually paid off.  This realization of cause and effect helped set the stage for bigger and better things to come.

I took a “break” from running after high school.  I played volleyball at a community college, but after the season didn’t make an effort to stay in shape.  A year went by without running and I felt...fat, sluggish, and unhealthy so I decided to start running again. 

To my dismay I was winded by a quarter mile, and ready to stop by a half a mile. I determined to stick with it, but two weeks later my right knee started to hurt when I ran.  I hoped a break from running would help but it didn’t.  For a year I tried different knee braces and strengthening exercises to let me get back into running. 

In July of 2010 I worked at a church camp for six weeks in Southwestern, Minnesota.  I determined to lose weight and start running again, and I did.  Unlike the first time when I had tried to pick up running after being dormant for a while, I started out slow. It was frustrating to be so slow at something I used to be good at, but I figured it was better than the alternative of being a “blob.”

I moved back home with the family in Wisconsin in August 2010.  I attended the local community college, and got a part-time job as a barista at a coffee shop.  Being new to the area I didn’t have many friends, the transition of moving back home wasn’t going so hot, school and work weren’t enough of a time spender, so the most logical thing to do with my extra time was run!  To my delight, slow and steady had worked and I was now able to run 4 miles before feeling tired. 

I was working at the coffee shop on a Saturday morning in mid-October.  My boss popped in for a few minutes and in passing said, “It might be a little busier this afternoon because of the WhistleStop going on over in Ashland.” 

To this I replied, “What’s the WhistleStop?” 

“It’s just the marathon that’s run from Iron River to Ashland every year”  she said absentmindedly, looking for something on a high shelf.  The seed was planted and I determined in my heart right then and there that, Lord willing, come next year I would run the WhistleStop Marathon.

To be continued...