To Run or Not to Run (First print in April 2009 Richmond Parents Monthly)

Since the Monument Avenue 10K is right around the corner and I still have never entered, I thought you would enjoy this reprint from a couple of years ago.


I’m ashamed to say that I have lived in Richmond for 17 years and have never participated in the Ukrop’s Monument Avenue 10K Race. In fact, the closest my family and I have ever gotten to the race, was 2 years ago when we accidentally stumbled across the marathon during our monthly trek to Rainbow Donuts… a great local donut shop on West Broad St.
Of course, only in the Frumpy Zone can you hear this conversation:
“Look at all the runners, kids.”
“Are they running to the Donut Shop?”
“No son, they’re just running.”
“We better hurry Daddy, before the runners take all the donuts with sprinkles.”
At this point, I eyeball my husband’s gut and my ever expanding waistline and sigh.
My husband says, “We should do the race next year.”
I smirk, and say, “Remember the Smoky Mountains.”
At this point my husband shudders and says, “Never mind.”
To understand our marathon aversion, we need to travel back in time, to when the Frumpy Zone was a nebulous cloud just starting to form into the twisted galaxy it is now, to when we were a simple family of three – not five. We were vacationing in the Smoky Mountains and decided to hike a 5 mile trail which we had done once before – when we were just a couple. But this time we would bring our 2 and a half year old daughter – without the stroller.
How hard could it be? She only weighed 25 lbs. We figured we could easily take turns carrying her if she got too tired. Oh, how young and naïve we were.
As they say on SpongeBob…2 HOURS LATER…
Chests heaving, muscles cramping, and cursing our stupidity, we found out the hard way that while 25 lbs. doesn’t seem like much when you’re carrying a sleeping child from the car to the bed; uphill on rocky, root infested terrain, 25lbs. feels like 250 lbs. It took us an entire day to complete a trail that should only have taken 2 hours.
Years have gone by, and the Frumpy Zone has fully developed. Our youngest child – age 4 – is almost able to make it through the Rockwood Park trails without whining, “Mama, carry me.” Rainbow Donuts has sadly closed its doors, but the Ukrop’s Monument Avenue 10K is still going strong. Perhaps next year we’ll find the courage to participate… or maybe we’ll discover another local donut shop.