Jesse's Marathon

"I am fast-I am fast-I am veryvery fast . . . "

I don't remember a time when Jesse wasn't pushing to move forward, to go faster. He raised his tiny head and rolled over in his crib when he was two weeks old. He first sped around in his walker on these wood floors, then zoomed around on his toy fire engine, doing laps down the hall, through the dining room and whizzing past me in the kitchen. He has always been a boy on the move.

When he was in first grade, the year before we all began unschooling, he ran his first race on Field Day. When he was 10, he ran an 8k with his Aunt Valerie. My husband, Mark, is an experienced runner, and he made sure that Jesse trained carefully for longer runs. Mark and Jesse ran 5ks, 10ks, and two half-marathons. They did a duathlon or two, road races and trail runs and mountain bike courses.

When he was 13 or 14, Jesse began to express to me that he wanted to find other runners his age to run with. He found the training runs by himself were becoming boring. When he and Mark ran on the weekends with Richmond Road Runners, there were only adults, and, though Jesse enjoyed the training runs, he was hoping for others his age to run with. He was also reading books about running, like "Running With the Buffaloes", about the University of Colorado cross country team, and "Harriers", about a high school cross country team. He read "Once a Runner", the cult classic for runners, and "Pre". He watched both of the "Pre" movies. He was curious to see what the team experience was like.

So, I did what all unschooling moms are there to do: I sought out paths to help Jesse find a way to experience what he wanted and needed to experience. First, I tried within the homeschool community. There were plenty of responses to my post on the local homeschool list about running, but they were all from families with younger kids who wanted to train to run a mile or less. There was one homeschool track team, but they were in Hampton, and they were Christian-based, with a statement of faith signature required to join. I find these "homeschool" teams irritating and deceptive. It's misleading to promote your team or organization as "homeschool", and then require a statement of faith. Why not just say upfront "Christian Homeschoolers Only" and be clear about it? Still, if it were in Richmond, and if it would have given Jesse the experience he was seeking, I would have pursued the idea, but, while we could have traveled to Hampton for meets, Jesse still wouldn't be training with kids his own age. Most of his running would still be alone.

Next, I called a woman in a nearby town who had organized a bunch of kids to run together over the summer. She sounded great, but said they weren't meeting any longer, as all of the kids were back in school. She did give me a couple of names to call. One guy, the father of a runner about Jesse's age, sounded very promising and upbeat, telling me about his son's running group, who met to run at a park not too far from us. After our first talk, he never called me back. I left messages, but never heard from him again.

Finally, I sent an email to the cross country coach at the nearby high school. Coach Dobrinski was wonderful -- enthusiastic, supportive. By this time, it was summer, and Jesse was 14. Coach told me that several of the runners from his team met over the summer to run. He put me in contact with Jo Menk, the mother of one of the boys. Jo has an impressive running background. She was a teenage track star in England, where she set a world record for 16-year-olds in the 1,000 meters that still stands. (Josephine White: 2:38.58. Amazing.) She came to the US for college and was a three-time All American. She was very welcoming to Jesse, and her son, Julian, is Jesse's age, and a terrific runner.

Coach Dobrinski went out of his way to try to let Jesse run on his team. He checked the Virginia state high school league rules, which unequivocally prohibit homeschoolers from participating on high school teams. When school started, he invited Jesse to practice with the team and took Jesse with them to out-of-state invitational meets. He gave Jesse a team uniform and let him run in home meets as an eight grader, whose times don't count toward the team score. Jo invited Jesse to go to Footlocker National races and to AAU and USATF races. Sometimes truly wonderful people come into your children's lives.

Jesse is 17, now. Several months ago, he told his dad (who, you'll remember, is living and working in Hot Springs, AR) that he wanted to run a marathon before he turns 18 in September. Mark and I searched, but, because of the Southern summer heat, there were no nearby marathons before October or November. Mark told Jesse that he would schedule a trip home to run the Richmond Marathon with Jesse in November, but Jesse was adamant: Sure, they could run the Richmond Marathon together, but he still wanted to run one before he turned 18.

Hmm.

So training and planning for Jesse's Marathon began. Now, Mark sends Jesse running schedules and training advice. Mark calls every evening, and Jesse can ask him about ice baths and handheld water bottles and mapping his run through Ashland. One of the worst things about Mark working out of state has been that his sons are growing up without him here. Planning Jesse's Marathon has given Mark and Jesse something to talk about and connect through. When Mark comes home for a week in August, he and Jesse and I will plan a route for Jesse's Marathon, which is scheduled for September 18th or 19th, the weekend before Jesse's 18th birthday. We'll be calling for volunteers to man water stops and cheer Jesse on. And if you would like to wear a Jesse's Marathon Support Crew T-shirt, whether you can be there in person or not, I'll be posting a link to Cafepress, soon. *Okay, done. Not Cafepress, but Zazzle. least expensive white cotton shirt is $12.95 + shipping. Just for fun and to make Jesse smile. Don't worry about buying one, if you don't want to. :) If you do, send or email me a photo, so I can paste you to the GO JESSE poster! Jesse's Marathon t-shirt.