Pushing Hard

Yesterday was Delaney's pre-test run for his black belt. Each student is supposed to do a 2 mile run for their test, and they have a certain time under which they need to complete it to get their name in script on their belt. When the first people went through their test in 2009, we heard that 18 minutes was the time.

That's quick.

When we trained a little over the summer with the other students, Delaney struggled to get much below 24 minutes, and continued to struggled as went into the fall. I was trying to get him 2-3 times a week out there, but with the winter weather, vacation, etc., we didn't get a steady schedule. Delaney was also not terribly motivated to push. The last few weeks I've pushed a bit more, but he was still slow. However one of the assistant instructors told us that at 12 years old, he had 20 minutes.

Yesterday we went to the fieldhouse to run. One other adult was there for his run, and Tia and I were there to pace Delaney. He started quick with the other adult, a little quicker than I expected and it took my almost a lap to catch him. We pushed along, me tracking each lap time as we went for our 22 laps. A short track, and tough, but I was proud for Delaney for pushing. He had to talk a few times, but we managed to get through it, running most of the way  and finishing strong. He ended up 19:12, which was faster than I expected, and I think the fastest he has ever done 2 miles.

Some confusion from our teacher on the actual times since it was one of the assistants that tracked it, so we'll see tonight if he was a minute slow or a minute fast. In any case, I'm proud of him for the effort, and for pushing through the whole 2 miles.