Recovery and Travel

After the race weekend we had a few days at home and then off to the next adventure. It was a soccer road trip to watch Mckenna play. Ayden Jane loves 'soccer adventures' as I call them and Grandma even came this time so we were set.

It is an entire understatement to say it was hot. It was crazy hot. It was honestly, unhealthy hot for Ayden Jane. She is pretty used to heat living here in SC. However, if she goes out to play when the temps are in the 90's she doesn't stay out long. She comes in to cool off ect.  On the soccer fields it was 95 plus and we were out there for 2 1/2 hours.... Even in the shade Ayden Jane just melted. 

On the bright side, the times of Mckenna's games worked out so we could go to the Greensboro Science Center. Ayden Jane had a BLAST. She is so much fun to take to things because she wants to see, hear and read it all. She even cornered the docent and grilled him with questions. AJ enters the exhibit and goes methodically around. She likes to look for the animals, read the information and notice everything before moving on to the next. It's a stark contrast to taking Noah when he was little. His method was more in the, look at that - zoom.  Look at that - zoom. In 3 minutes, all done!

Since we have been back Ayden Jane has shown some signs that she is struggling a bit to recover. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. I mean, she had pneumonia and then ran 5k and then went on a road trip. I also think the heat really ran her down. Today it seemed like she finally regained her energy. We will return to running next week and settle into summer!!!

Racing - with pneumonia

Wow. Time is flying!!!

I can't believe June is halfway over. We have been so busy with the end of school and training and preparations for the One Small Step run that I haven't made time for much else.

Ayden Jane did such an amazing job training and running through the couch to 5K training plan. The second to last week her running was finally hitting a great stride and I was excited to see how great she would do after one more week of training.

Then last weekend she just seemed tired. I passed it off as just your typical last week of school combined with sunny skies and lots of summer fun sort of tired. We started our day with a run and she could only manage a few minutes. I told her that sometimes you just have a bad day...As the day wore on Monday I was pretty sure I needed to get her checked out. Ayden Jane started on a campaign to prove she was fine and could go outside and run around and play with her friends... She was being quite the ham doing impromptu commercials and other silliness. I made the appointment for Tuesday morning anyway.

She woke up full of energy and I even asked Gary at one point if I was crazy and should I just cancel the appointment. Wisely he told me to just take her to be safe. I thought through and sure enough, it had been a good 2 weeks plus since Ayden Jane had first mentioned her throat being scratchy, coughing a bit ect... And about a week since her voice had gotten a thick cruddy sound with an occasional cough that sounded a bit like Ayden Jane was going to choke. Sparing you all the details, we headed home with a diagnosis of walking pneumonia and a script for antibiotics.

Not really what you want 4 days before a race!

She ran well for the first mile and then she asked, "why does my chest hurt so bad?" Ummm maybe because you've had pneumonia.... Next up and I think even tougher on her the gastro side effects of antibiotics and the need for a restroom came upon her. The second half of the race was not pretty. She felt horrible but she wanted to finish so on we forged. I was trying to decide what was worse, letting her push herself to the brink and finish this thing, or having to spend the next who knows how many months listening to her complain to me that it was all my fault she didn't finish because I made her stop. I chose poor parenting choice one.

Everyone has been so great to her, telling her how proud of her they are that she finished even when she didn't feel well. She says thank you and is pretty quiet about the whole thing. When it's just the two of us she says, "you know Mom, I didn't really do it. I didn't run the whole thing." It's going to drive her crazy until she completes one.

And there, in a nutshell, is what is so incredibly amazing about this kid. Pneumonia and all she does not cut herself any slack but also doesn't get down. I mean come on! She is s a seven year old kid and I would think that her biggest reaction from the whole experience would be to decide never to run again!!

Instead, on the way home in the car (after a 2 hour nap) she started talking about her next race. I told her I thought after a few weeks off we could start running again. I was quickly corrected and informed we would be running THIS week. Even after I reminded her that she would do plenty of running at soccer camp she was not satisfied. She has declared we need to do at least two 30 minute runs per week. I suggested 20 minute runs but was shot down...

So still on antibiotics but gaining strength daily. Big dreams and expectations intact. Next race scheduled for October. Now it's summer for real...