'Daddy, did you not get a medal because you were too slow?'

 I’d just completed my first Park Run pushing a pram, yet my 3 year old daughter Josie was sat next to me eating apricot yoghurt criticising my performance!

Four years earlier Park Run was a weekly event, and mine & my partner Alice’s PB’s tumbled regularly. With our first daughter Josie due, and keen to carry on running, we’d splashed out on a baby jogger pram.

Fast forward to last Saturday and myself, our 2 year old son Cillian and the baby jogger readied ourselves for our inaugural Heaton Park Run race.  

‘Go’! shouted the starter and off we – well trundled. Amongst a hoard of runners, we spent the first km being swept along by the mass, trying hard not to clip any heels.

By 2 km the path widened and everyone spread out. With a clear view Cillian found his voice, ‘Daddy Daddy, doggy doggy, Daddy duck, Daddy tree, stick, donkey……'.

At 3km we faced the 40m climb to Heaton Hall nicknamed angina hill by park runners.  As I paused for a moment Cillian turned to me ‘go go go Daddy’. It was a slow slog, but with my 2 year old motivator urging me on we reached the summit.

Around the Hall then at last the downhill section to 4km. As we gathered speed I glanced over to see my toddler co-driver slumped in a deep sleep. Despite a bit of wheel tremor in the last km we managed to finish in a respectable time, and although my arms ached I’d really enjoyed my first pram race. Cillian? Well I think he did as well.  The next day when I put him in his pram he turned to me and shouted ‘run Daddy, run run run'.

We’ll be back at Heaton Park Run this Saturday so come along and join us.

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