A Lending Hand ...

I wasn't sure how to title this week's (actually last week) run. I was going to call it The Power of Wind, but I decided against it.  Here's the reason. My Monday run was my 2nd 5 miler and I was feeling good. I carved out a whole minute from the week before's 5 mile run. Wednesday I migh have got out to run too soon after eating, but I pushed through some parts of the pain to run it in 45 minutes (approximately). Then Friday ... it was windy and cool. I had a rough first 2 miles. I was trying to get settled into my pace, but with the wind it was hard to get in a rhythm. I try to keep a certain pace, but with the wind in my face I tried to push harder to keep up my pace. However, then I get tired out more quickly and I have to slow down once I turn a corner. Well, around mile 2.5, I am running on the sidewalk along a busy road. Up ahead is an intersection and biking to the corner coming from a perpenticular direction, was a boy on a bike, maybe 4-5 years old. It seemed odd to see him out all  by himself. I look around to see if there is an adult around, but I was it and I was pretty sure this wasn't my child. I stopped to see what he was doing and he said he was going to the bank to see his Daddy. I knew I had past a bank about 3 minutes prior, but this kid was biking in the other direction. He crossed the street on his bike while a younger girl maybe 3-4 years old was running after this boy calling after him in that child language of a 3-4 year old that was a mystery to me. The wind was blowing and she was trying to tell me something, but what I assumed was her brother kept biking farther away I decided I would take this girl to her brother and find out where their parents were. So I took her little hand and we quickly trotted off after the boy trying to get him to stop.

We caught up with him and convinced him to turn around. I acertained from the girl that they lived in  the house on the corner of the street we crossed. So on the way back the boy biked off faster than the little girl and I did and he got to the intersection way before us. I tried to yell at him to wait for us to cross the street and he peddled right out into the street and crossed the street. After my heart calmed down I took the little girl across the street and back to what they said was their house. The little girl went in the back door while the boy stayed outside a little longer than she did, but I wanted to make sure he was inside the house before I left. Finally, he did go inside and out of a weird fear of having some strange person thinking I'm the weirdo holding hands with their kids I decided they were fine inside and I jogged off. In what was probably only 4-5 minutes, it put me in quite a hole.

The next mile I pushed it quite a bit to try to make up the time, but not thinking I could. A little mile 3.5 I turned to have the wind at my back. It really did feel like I was being pushed forward. My strides felt like that of a guy who was 6'6". It was pretty trippy. The last mile I felt good and it turns out I ran it in 45 minutes. The same time it took 2 days before. I was pretty amazed.

At any rate I felt good about offering a helping hand to the kids on the street. With that I gotta run.