Chasing Sportacus

Me and Girl Lacer (4) ran the Sport Relief mile today in a very extremely cold London Embankment and it was fantastic. Girl Lacer ran all the way, pulling me along at points. Sportacus from Lazytown was there (if you don’t know what Lazytown it’s pretty much a global TV show where Sportacus encourage young kids to be active and healthy and at least round here it is absolutely loved). Sportacus was running the mile to and he was absolutely lovely, he was of course mobbed by lots of adoring pre-schoolers and he kept on stopping to say hello and for photos. Me and Girl Lacer started the race by chasing after him, he kept on stopping to grab onto the poles of street signs etc and he’d lever himself up so that he was completely horizontal, just hanging onto the pole, I thought that was a trick on TV and he was stopping to run on his hands and do press ups with kids on his back. He made a lot of little kids’ days.Girl Lacer was desperate for Sportacus to say hello to her and she did get close a number of times (her blonde little head is in the forefront of the second photo above) but she’s a polite little thing (and can be shy sometimes) so what with other more bolder kids (and their parents) pushing in she didn’t really have a chance, but still she got to get very close and although (ssh don’t tell anybody under 7) Sportacus is obviously only a TV character the guy himself who plays him, Magnus Scheving is pretty awe inspiring, an ex-aerobics champion he seems to passionately believe in getting the healthy living / exercise message across and has created the whole Lazytown franchise himself as well as starring in it.

Anyway eventually we had to leave Sportacus behind and run on and soon we came up behind this walking musical percussion band which was also doing the mile, there was just this whole large mass of very noisy percussionists. Anyway as we were running up behind them me and Girl Lacer were liking the music but as we got closer it got noisier and noisier so that when we ran past Girl Lacer had her hands over her ears and as soon as we ran past she’d dive onto the pavement, the band would pass us by and we’d have to run past them again, we did this 3 times and I was like “What are you doing?”, turns out she was terrified this moving mass of very loud people would run her over if she stayed on the road, so when I eventually coaxed her back onto the road, she ran even faster! Anyway with Sportacus being mobbed every footstep of the mile we actually beat him, how many people can say they beat a ‘real life’ superhero in a race! So, a long, tiring but very memorable day, with two little people going to bed very tired but happy (Boy Lacer got to see Sportacus as well from a distance). Girl Lacer actually ran all the way (except when she stopped for Sportacus) and I’m very proud of her, we’ll definitely be doing the next one and maybe Boy Lacer and Mr. Lacer will be able to do it next time to.

I wish I’d had something like that when I was little, I grew up thinking I was ‘no good at sport’ and therefore didn’t do any, it was only as an adult did I discover I liked working out in the gym, kick boxing and running (unfortunately due to budgetary constraints it’s just running at the moment), so it has always been my aim as a parent to encourage physical activity in my kids and also to act as a positive example with me exercising, fingers crossed that Girl Lacer has the ‘bug’.

So, I’m tired now, I don’t ache too bad, I’m a little tender in the legs but that’s principally because of a tough run yesterday however my arm really &*^% hurts! And it’s not a running injury; on the way there today, as I was carrying Boy Lacer onto the train, which had stopped at one of those platforms where there is a really wide gap between the train and the platform and as it had been raining, the floor just inside the doorway of the train was wet, so I’m climbing on the train, a heavy, wiggly 2 1/2 year old in my left arm, door already beeping to close, one foot on the train as I’m about to step up and that foot slips on the wet floor and I’m left virtually doing the splits with one foot skidding onto the train and the other foot on the platform, I had to reach out round the corner with my right arm and haul me and Boy Lacer up using the handle inside the door and felt a sharp shooting pain whilst I did it, must have twisted it ‘cos it still hurts! It’s always fun taking the kids into central London though, Girl Lacer especially, she’s at that age where everything is looked at with wide open eyes and even to me after living here for 10 years London is still magical, I can’t even imagine what it’s like for her.

---

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• Babes’ Blog, Week 40: The squeaky wheel
• Come to Baby Mama