Running Like A Kid

The wonderful thing about running as parents is that you get to see your kids run. We are trying to make running or exercising a way of life very much like a few other running family that we know off (The Siah's family consist of Kevin, Karen and family and the Chan's Family consist of Jun Shen and family) that make healthy living an everyday affair. Growing up, i never had the opportunity due to minimal exposure and also cost factor. I never had a proper running shoe until i started working 13 year ago. My sports shoe used to be my school shoes, which still need to be kept clean everyday.
Myself and wifey decided to get the two kids (lucky kids) a pair of proper running shoe to start them off. We were looking for decent shoes and sadly, not many will make proper running shoes for kids. Priced pretty steeply, especially for those more predictable sports brand, we are often turn off by the fact the kids shoes are made more for fashion than function.
As we are Brooks shoe user currently (due to the pricing and functions, and a big factor in the retail staff knowledge in shoes), we decided to see if we can find anything from Brooks for the kids.
We were not disappointed.
Up on the shelf was mini version of Brooks Ghost 4 and Brooks Adrenalin GTS 12! That is almost the top shoes available in the store for adults even. A quick check got me and wifey impressed as they are really truly the mini version of the adult version down to the construction and material used.
Here is how an adult Ghost 4 looked like.

And this is how an adult Adrenalin GTS 12 looked like

The kids Ghost 4 and GTS 12, is an incarnation of the adults, with the exact build and quality. That is impressive.

Purple is Ghost4 and Blue is Adrenalin GTS12

We paid RM199 for each pair (with the adults' version about twice the price without discount) and it was really steep to pay for kids feet. Considering that we intend to make them at least jog on the weekend in the park, this is one investment we are willing to make - to protect their feet and to allow them to grow up loving to do so.

Kids see running as fun. Not as something they are made to do

We had previously let the kids run in multitude of different shoes and sandals, to see how they will react to them. Suffice to say, we noticed the differences when they wore the proper running shoes as opposed to the other shoes and sandals.

Youngest, but never gives up

Best way to teach them that life is not about losing or winning is to start them young

As you can see, they truly enjoyed it. Kids with their abundance of energy is a joy to watch. While some studies has shown that having kids doesn't really make you any happier, i beg to differ as you would have to be a parents to say otherwise.

Brooks, Asics and Barefoot - Family Exercising and Sweating!

I uses the opportunity during the weekend run/jog with kids to start running barefoot. Funny how we are getting the kids proper shoes and I am here trying to harness the benefit of barefoot running. So far, i have been transitioning to land mid and forefoot as that is how running should be before all the marketing guru in sports shoe says you will need a shoe with super cushioning to run faster. I sound to be contradicting myself here with the shoes for kids and me barefoot. Perhaps i am. But our concern for the kids to have better protected feet (rather than hurting themselves and start to hate running) goes above motivation to let them run barefoot. Time will come when they will do what I am doing as well.
But for now, lets just enjoy them growing up the way some of us adults never had the chance to.
I tell you, kids run super fast. I was chasing Nadia at about 12km/h in the first video below.

and subsequently, it was a mad 25 second burst of speed (almost sprinting for me) catching Ryan at close to 15km/h!

Our only hope is that they will grow up leading a healthy life and loving the simple pleasure of being outdoor than to be trapped at home watching TV or playing the computer games or mobile devices. We aspire to. We hope we can.