TCC, Day 8: I raced a four year old today.

I wasn't going to write anything today because it's kind of doom and gloom around here. The county put in a shelter in place which basically means we're even more shut down than we were. Nobody wants to hear about that on day 8.

But I've also decided that as long as weather permits I will go for a walk every day. So after dinner, Trey joined me for a walk around the loop.

Trey walks fast. Like, excessively fast. He knows this because we all give him a hard time about it. He's probably in the best shape of his life at the age of *cough cough* so he can stand a little teasing about it.

I used to get offended that Trey would walk so fast. For real. We would be shopping or walking to the car or something, and I would be practically running trying to keep up and saying tacky things in my head and smiling and pretending I was having the best time ever. That's perfectly normal, right?

Then I became a grown up (I think maybe this happened last year) and decided that his walking fast had absolutely nothing to do with me. Now I just go at my own pace and know that when he realizes he's left me in the dust he'll slow and wait for me to catch up.

Being a grown up is full of life changing understandings like this.

So tonight we went for walk. We were walking fast - somewhere between Speedy Gonzalez and a stroll - and we came up behind two women who were walking much slower than us. We did that thing where we looked at each other and knew we needed to pass them, but we weren't sure how to do it while also staying out of the mud and social distancing. I whispered, "I'm going to run until we get around them and to the end of this street and then it won't be awkward. They'll think we're out for a run."

("Out for a run" - hehehe - I haven't been out for a run in a minute or two. Or a year. )

We ran and when we were out of their sight we stopped. I didn't make it to the end of the street because running is hard. We continued our walk.

A little while later, we came upon young parents and thier precious little girl in her precious little dress. She had to be about four. They were enjoying a stroll in the sunshine, and we gained on them quickly. Our plan worked so well the last time, so we gave each other a head nod and began to run.

We passed the parents easily. The little princess, however, seemed surprised to see us running. She stopped, gave us a huge smile, and then took off.

She wanted to race!

I was not qualified.

My legs were burning and I was breathing hard and I was trying so hard not to laugh. But I couldn't just let a four year old beat me, could I? I mean, I'm a grown up.

Thankfully, when we were well down the sidewalk, her blessed parents saved my life by yelling for her to stop. She stopped running and started twirling on the sidewalk, and a good fifteen seconds later I caught up to her.

That means I won, right?

Best. Race. Ever.

The end.