Photo credit @chriscabret
Maybe soon, you’ll catch them on TV, or at the 2028 Olympic Games. But for now, we are taking it one second, one race, one lesson at a time. We are loving this crazy, beautiful, adventurous, fast ride, fueled by raw milk, grass fed meat, and hard work. If you know of any fun races in other states, we’d be happy for you to share! Otherwise, keep your eyes peeled for these superstars in LA 2028!
Providence pastures running club
In addition to farming, running has become one of our family’s greatest passions. One of our prayers as parents was/is for God to reveal our children’s talents so we can help them along in achieving their goals both now and in the future. As an answer to that prayer, we discovered our oldest son developed a clear talent for running early on. We have had good and bad experiences, and for the most part everyone has been rather supportive. There have been many successes and some failures, but we have met so many kind and loving people that have become our “running family” over the years. They are the true prize in all of this.
After nearly 10 years in the competitive youth running scene, we are still finding our rhythm, but we have more clearly defined goals. Our older boys are hoping to run at least 1 race in each of the contiguous states before they graduate (I think we’re up to 17 at the time of this writing, though many of those have been duplicated). Speedy is taking it year by year, trying to remain at the top of his class and potentially set some national records. And the big one—they’d like to make an Olympic appearance.
Most people would probably shrug off some of what we do, and many people tell us we’re crazy, we don’t know what we’re doing, or that it’d be best to send our kids off to school to compete with OHSAA students, but we have left all of those dialogues open with our kids. They know what they want, and they know the path they want to take. They also know if that ever changes, we are on board. So for now, we are just a couple of first-time parent coaches trying to do right by our kids without getting in the way of their success.
As I write this, they are getting ready to run their first collegiate level race, in hopes of bettering their times for nationals. Their love and dedication to the sport is inspiring to me. In many ways, I feel that they take life much too seriously for their ages, but that also makes me so proud. They know what they want, and instead of sitting back and waiting for it to be handed to them, they are going after it—a lesson I think farming may have had a hand in.