Today, my nine-year old son Brandon celebrated the culmination of several months of effort by attending and completing the "Final Mile" ceremony for Marathon Kids. In essence, Brandon completed a full marathon's worth of running over a period of many weeks, and this final event was held at a stadium in south Austin with a party atmosphere and tons of encouragement, cheering, and music. The kids felt like rock stars.
After they ran the final mile (which was actually about ½ mile), they were awarded with a nice gold medal and a t-shirt. In my son's case, he will also be getting the video game of his choosing today when we go to GameStop. That was my contribution to help get him on the right path toward regular exercise. So far, it seems to be working well as an additional incentive.
He completed his final run for the marathon this past Monday evening, and he is already working toward a new goal, which is a subscription to Nick Magazine. The subscription is about $20, so Brandon has agreed to run 20 miles for this. Not a bad trade for either of us. He has already gone about 1.5 miles toward the new goal.
While traveling to the stadium this morning, we ended up taking a longer route than I had anticipated (thanks, Google Maps!) so we were cutting it closer on time than I had planned. If it weren't for the terrible traffic congestion from the hundreds of people attending the event, we would have been about 10 minutes early. As it turned out, we got there about 15-20 minutes late. However, this ended up being perfect timing as it was a few minutes before the 4th graders were set to run, so it worked out well.
I am a proud dad today, and I am hoping and planning to run more often with him in the upcoming months, as I also need to get back on track when it comes to exercise.
I asked Brandon how he felt after completing such a cool feat, and he said (in his typical mature-beyond-his-years way), "I feel like a new man."
Later, when we were discussing the event at lunch with my mom (pictured at right), Brandon said, "When we were in the stadium, it felt like I was passing a test with flying colors." and, "I feel like I could fly."
What more could a father want for his son?
If you would like more information about Marathon Kids, please visit their website at http://www.marathonkids.com/. They currently have programs in a number of cities and I believe that they are looking to expand further.
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Jason,
Brandon reminds me of my 13 year old, Josh...just a big huggable teddy bear!!! Thanks, Fran
Jason - What a good looking young man. He should be very proud of accomplishing his goal. I'm afraid at this point I would have to run a marathon in stages as well.
Congratulations to Brandon!! YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH - you did it!
psst...ask for a car next time ;)
Jason.... can you take me to game stop so I can get a new game also? What game did he pick out? overall, this is great. My one niece is very active in cheer.... she and my one nephew use to do karate, but stopped. I think it's very important for kids, when young, to participate in some type of sport, to keep in shape. Overall, thanks for sharing this.
Jason,
Very touching story! Thanks for sharing!
Lucky :)
ELAINE - That is me in a nutshell, honestly, but you know that already. With regard to Brandon, I intend to let him read these comments along with the post itself very soon. I already shared it with my wife and my mom.
DAN - Thanks for your sincere words. I figured that there were a few people wondering if he finished or not. I have been excited to see him getting regular exercise with the running and his martial arts class, which meets twice a week.
JESSE - I have never been a distance runner myself, but I am hoping to work up to a reasonable level along with Brandon. Thanks for your compliment - he really is a terrific kid.
DEB - Honestly, I don't mind providing some extra incentive to get him (and keep him) moving regularly. All of our kids seem to be quite happy!
LISA - I will pass along your message to Brandon. Thanks!
JEFF - I remember that you mentioned that about your nephew when you read my post about my son's martial arts class. Brandon chose "Super Paper Mario" for the Wii today as his reward (about $50). Believe me, it is well worth it to me.
RICH - Thanks for your sincere and kind comment. I appreciate that. I am hoping to continue the goal setting with Brandon as we move forward. This was a terrific day for him!
LUCKY - Thanks! I was happy to share.
Jason - this is a such a great inspiring story for Father & Sons and families all over. Find activities that you children can particiate and have a great time, involve the family and teach your children some great new skills and motivate them to want to do it again. Kudos to you for being a great Dad and inspiring your son. A warm fuzzy feeling came to me as I read this nice post. I say Brandon should start working on his WORDPRESS (free blog) to track his progress. Check out Karly's at www.karlyrobinson.wordpress.com She loves art and is fantastic at designing greeting cards... and so I encouraged her to set a page up. I would love to see Brandon do one and perhaps he can put up his science projects, thoughts and start journaling just like Dad, too!