My Sporty Kids & A Guest Post…

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about my experience running Bloomsday with Connar.  Today, I have a special Guest Post from my father-in-law about his experience running Bloomsday with Aiden!

How do you get a 6 year old to walk a 7.5 mile mini marathon?
The first Sunday in May, Spokane celebrates spring with a 7.5 mile run/walk/carried/strollered race through town. Aiden has participated every year since he was 1 year old. At first he rode in a stroller the whole way and gradually worked his way up to stroller/walking and, last year, carried/walking. This year Aiden wanted to walk the whole race all by himself.
So how do you get a 6 year old to walk 7.5 miles?  Welcome to The Amazing Race (Bloomsday Edition).
Having participating in the race for 25 years, we know the course well and have many pictures of us with friends and family in the race. We built a small scrap book with pictures that provided clues and challenges for Aiden to overcome roadblocks and detours along the course.
Each mile Aiden was given a card from the book that challenged him to complete a task during that mile such as find 9 items, meet 6 other Bloomies, not let a stroller pass him or hand out water at the water table. At the end of the mile Aiden would win a reward like a medal, a poptart, or bubbles. This breaks it up into seven 1 mile walks with rests in between.  Aiden was very eager to begin and complete each new mile.
We also enlisted help of family members to meet us along the race. One of the items Aiden won was green tea, which he traded to his Uncle Derrick for ice cream!
We took pictures of Aiden at every challenge, reward, mile marker and the finish line. We printed the pictures and inserted them in the book also.  Aiden now has a wonderful scrap book with all of the challenges and pictures of his Amazing Race.

Aiden was a real trooper and walked the whole race. We weren’t the first to finish but as the proverb says: It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey.

How do you make big challenges fun and attainable?