Running and Games

Our family has a game we have played for years, since the kids were little. On trips, driving to school, driving to sporting events, any time we went anywhere we played this game.

The game started out as "slug bug", the game we all know from our childhood. As a family we revised the game to include other unusual cars, and cars in the color yellow, instead of slugging we put into place a point system. We also had penalties for various actions, as well as rules for the driver and car lot cars. We always had a family meeting when one of us decided the rules need to change. The game has evolved over the years and we consider it "our" game but will share the rules when appropriate.


Well today marked another evolution of our game. Terry and I went to Weatherford to the Rails to Trails to run our 13 mile run today. It was chilly, cold, and the wind picked up out of the north as time went on.


If you are a distance runner you will understand the need for distraction on a long run. Usually Terry and I plan an agenda for the run so can talk about different topics to keep ourselves occupied. Today however, Terry came up with a different idea.


His idea was our "game" only revised, it went something like this: Cardinals - one point, Dove - one point, Bunnies - one point, Squirrels - one point, Horses (with rider on trail) - two points, Human (must be on trail) walking or cycling - one point, Deer - 2 points, Wild Hog - 5 points, and if we happen upon a dead body that would give you the winner for life. (Morbid I know). If misidentified you lose a point.


Is it possible that this game made this run such a good run? I can't explain how much it helped and how much fun it was to look for those things that would offer us freedom from "what mile are we on now?" and instead give us a fun sense of competition. Yelling out "person" "cardinal" "there's one", I am sure the few folks we saw thought we were out of our gourd!


So for all of you who enjoy games and also run, try it where you run using your own critters or anything else you run across and see how much distraction you can create for yourself.

Oh and yes, I won :). 10 - 7