Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Hi, everyone, this is Dawn Klem, and you are on my podcast, Milkweed and Monarchs. Today I thought I would talk to you about how I decided I wanted to motivate my daughters to participate in team sports.
[00:00:21] I never really. I mean, I was a cheerleader, but I don't really consider that a team sport sport. I kind of wish that my mom would have pushed me or encouraged me a little harder to participate in sports, even at least running, because I could have done running. I think I could have been on cross country or even on track. But she didn't participate in sports and she wasn't even a cheerleader. So I guess me being a cheerleader was about as good as it was was gonna get back then. But I didn't feel that way. I always felt like, oh, I'm not really part of the group. You know what I mean? I wanted to be part of a team. I mean, I have so many friends from back then, and at that time I had a lot of friends, and I'm so grateful for that. But being on a team sport is really a good thing. I think it teaches you a lot of things and I think it would have helped me in my adult life. So I made up my mind that I was going to encourage my daughters to be part of a team.
[00:01:33] And one of the first things that came up was when they were in middle school and it was cross country running. Both of them love to be outdoors, so I thought, well, this is going to be. This will be something great.
[00:01:49] But they were hesitant about being on a team.
[00:01:54] They were still getting their feet firmly planted on the ground when they came. We were living in North Yarmouth, and when they went to middle school, we had moved to Cape Elizabeth. So, you know, they barely spoke English when they got here. Actually, they spoke none. And then to move them again was just another traumatic thing for them. So I was convinced that putting them on a cross country team was going to be a good thing.
[00:02:26] But how was I going to do that, right? You know, you can encourage them all you want. I got the oldest daughter to start cross country, but she was a little shy about it, although she's a natural runner, even to this day.
[00:02:47] So I decided, well, what am I gonna do? I gotta help her be more motivated. I said, I'm gonna start running. Such. When I look back, I think, what in the heck were you doing? But it was one of the best things that I ever did. I think I was like 47, 48 years old. I started running.
[00:03:08] I was heavy, heavier than I am right now, and I worked with a woman. She was actually the coordinator, secretary, coordinator, person for the bone marrow transplant program. Her name was Lois. She was about five years older than me, so she was in her 50s, and she ran marathons all the time. And she was short, like me, too.
[00:03:37] And so I went to her and I said, can you, you know, help me help my daughters? I want to run. I think if I run, that will motivate them to run as well. And she was like, oh, my gosh, this is going to be the best thing that you have ever done in your life, Dawn. You are going to be so glad that you're running. And I will definitely be your trainer. You have nothing to worry about. And we'll start after the new year. So I think I went to her in the fall. The oldest daughter was just finishing her first cross country season in the fall.
[00:04:18] So I'm like, okay.
[00:04:21] So I'll never forget it because it was like, January 2nd.
[00:04:25] It was 17 degrees out. And she calls me and she said, you ready to start? And I'm like, what? She says, oh, yeah, you're gonna be running in all weather. Rain, snow, I don't care. You are gonna train.
[00:04:43] So I'm like, okay, here I go. And she picked me up and she drove me to an area that was really quite hilly. I don't even. I did make it up the hills, but it was slow going, slow going.
[00:05:01] And I decided at the same time I probably should change my diet around.
[00:05:08] So I actually ordered, I think, Weight Watchers food at the time, and they delivered it to my house. So I was going to go on that. And I said to my mom. My mom was staying with us during the school year. I said to my mom, now I know why people lose weight on Weight Watchers. And she says, why? I said, the food tastes like dog food.
[00:05:36] And that is the truth. It was just so terrible. It was awful.
[00:05:42] But anyhow, I started training with her, and I ran with her three days a week, and she was like a drill sergeant.
[00:05:53] And then she said, you're gonna sign up for your first 5K.
[00:05:59] I go, I am. She goes, yes, you're gonna sign up. It's 3.1 miles. I go 3.1. I can barely run a half a mile right now, right? She's like, you're gonna sign up. There's a Mother's Day race in Portland. We're living in Portland, Maine. And the. You start downtown, and you end up in the Sea Dog Stadium in front of all of the audience. I'm like, oh, Lord, Lois, really? She said, yes, you are going to do this. This is going to be so good for you.
[00:06:37] So I'm like, okay. She says, yes, you're going to sign up.
[00:06:41] The Sea Dogs were our triple is their triple A ball league in Portland. So we had been to many games there. It's a lot of fun.
[00:06:55] But I didn't know about running into a stadium with a bunch of people. I had no idea. But I said, okay. It's a goal to shoot for. Okay. So we started in January.
[00:07:08] She's training me every day. She's training me to run.
[00:07:14] And I was doing okay. I can't say I was doing great.
[00:07:20] You know, it's hard when you're trying to lose weight. I was already heavy to begin with. I'm, you know, my stubby little legs are running. But I keep looking at her thinking, hey, she's the same size as you, and she's doing it. You're gonna do it too.
[00:07:35] So we ran three days a week. We always ran on the weekends, and we ran one day during the week.
[00:07:42] Sometimes she was so far ahead of me, and I would take a little break, and she knew I was. But she was like, get going.
[00:07:50] And it is so true. She would time me. She would take me to the high school track and make me run laps around the track. Now, that was not so bad. I actually could handle the laps around the track. And before we left Maine and moved back to Michigan, I was running four miles a day on the track at the high school. And it was great. I. I don't think I've ever felt so good in all of my life.
[00:08:20] So anyhow, I had absolutely zero expectations about what it was going to be like to run in the Mother's Day. Sea Dog 5K. I had no idea. I was thinking to myself, I've never really done anything like this before. The only thing I had ever really done was that Takati to Ensenada bike ride. And so I just didn't know. So the morning came.
[00:08:50] I had gotten to the point where I was actually able to run three miles. So I was feeling like, okay, I can at least finish this while we get to the the place. And there's literally, there was probably a couple thousand people there. It was so many people. And I was completely petrified.
[00:09:14] Petrified. I'm thinking to myself, why are you so afraid, Dawn? You don't have anything to be afraid. They're not going to be looking at you. They're trying to concentrate on their own running. But I Had to keep psyching myself out. This is not about you. Nobody's gonna be watching you. You're gonna run this race and you're gonna be so glad you did.
[00:09:40] And so, you know, you get lost in that crowd. You just get lost in the crowd and the gun goes off and slowly you just start running because it's such a mob of people that you're not running, you know, like a shot out of a cannon to start out with. You're just pacing yourself nice and slow. Eventually the runners that are very good runners and have been doing this for a long time get way ahead of the pack and the back of the pack starts to thin out. And that's what was happening with me. When it thinned out a little bit, then I was starting to feel a little bit better. But I remember thinking after like two miles, oh Lord, I hope I'm gonna be able to finish this. I mean, when I look back on it now, I think, dawn, you're such a wimp. What's the matter with you? I think I stopped and got a quick drink and then I just kept running. I'm looking around, seeing everybody, you know, and Lois would run way ahead of me. And then she turned around and one run back. And to encourage me, I mean, I couldn't have had a better coach. She probably ran a double marathon that day. She probably ran a 10k because she had to keep coming back to me to get me to keep moving. You know, I think I have anxiety when I look back at some of these things. And the myself, I'm my own worst enemy. I hold myself back from being my best self. And this is just one of those examples like how can I be running at the, the track? Nobody's there. I ran all the time, no problem.
[00:11:48] But when I'm in a crowd, I'm having an anxiety attack. And I really think that's what half of my hold up was. And some of it is just your confidence level, right? So there's a problem that you don't really believe yourself or you don't think that you can do what the, the, the task at hand. And you're so self conscious about it, but it really. Come on, that's ridiculous. And I wish my wise old self would have been able to talk to my younger, middle aged self and say, get over yourself. Right.
[00:12:30] So I did end up finishing the sea dog race. I think I made it in 30 minutes, which is so what's that, like 10 minute miles? I mean, I didn't set any speed records but for my first race, I felt really, really good about it. I felt great about it.
[00:12:52] So I continued to run after that. I ran the. In the fall, I ran the Turkey Trot in. It was a. The Pine Cove race in Cape Elizabeth. And I did really well with that one. I think I got. Actually got below 30 minutes on that. And then I also ran the Moxie Race, which is Root Beer in Main, and that one was a little bit more challenging. And I ended up walking a couple of times in that because the hills were extremely high.
[00:13:25] So I was struggling running up and down the hills, but I was getting into my groove and I was running consistently, and I had lost about 20 pounds, so I was doing pretty good.
[00:13:38] My daughter, now the spring is coming, and she's ready to sign back up for cross country.
[00:13:48] She is now pretty jazzed up about running because she's been running with me. When we ran the.
[00:13:57] They didn't run in the Mother's Day Marathon or, yeah, Mother's Day Marathon, but they did run at. In the Turkey Trot with me, both of my daughters, and they also ran the Moxie Race with me. So they are starting to get more involved, too. And since I was running, it was comfortable for them to start running. And both of them were natural runners. Oh, my gosh, just natural runners.
[00:14:26] So the spring is coming, and I'm getting ready to get the oldest one signed up. They're having an invitational, and it's at Smiling Hill Farm, just outside of Portland, which is such a beautiful site. They have, like, a petting zoo there with all the farm animals. They have homemade ice cream because they have cows there. They have the milk products, all of that. So it's just a great place to. For your family to go. And the. It's a huge old farm with lots of hills.
[00:15:08] I think there were between five and seven schools that were invited to the invitational. So we were excited that the oldest daughter was going to be running in that race.
[00:15:19] So sure enough, at the end, she came in 8th out of all of everyone there. And.
[00:15:31] And the coach comes up to me and he goes, your daughter has something. I said, yeah, she really does. She's good. I've been running with her to keep her encouraged. And he looks at me, goes, you've been running. I'll never, never in my life forget that, because, I mean, that was kind of a testament. I just don't look like a runner. I'm not somebody that you would ever think would run. But I was running, and I did run, and I'm really Glad I did.
[00:16:05] My daughter. My youngest daughter started cross country the next year, and the two of them were so competitive. So the youngest daughter turned out to be incredible. And we had a. Another farm race out in the country, and it was in the fall, and so they had bales of hay that they had to run over. So they had a lot of little obstacles. It's kind of like an obstacle course. At the end, you run the cross country trail, but at the end, you're. It's called hail and bay, hay and bale. I mean, so in the end, you're running over these big bales of hay. So the youngest one has been behind the oldest one is doing well. And all of a sudden, it comes to the end of the race, and here comes the youngest one, and she passed everyone, everyone.
[00:17:07] And she ended up with getting in second place. And my husband and I look at each other and we're like, whoa, how did this ever even come to pass? We had no idea. No idea. But I think the bottom line is the youngest one is pretty competitive. The oldest one is more tentative, so she thinks about things before she really goes into them. The youngest one is like, I'm taking on the world. And it was so awesome.
[00:17:38] The oldest daughter's cross country team actually got to run at Michigan Speedway for state champion, and they did really well. They didn't get the championship, but they ran really, really well, and they did a great job, and it was wonderful. And it was all during the time when my mom was alive, so she was beside herself. First of all, that I actually even ran up a 5k, right? You. Can you imagine that? She called me up on Mother's Day and goes, well, how did you do? I go, well, I finished. There's the first.
[00:18:16] Right? But when she was staying with us and I would go and run like four miles a day, she's like, oh, my gosh, I never thought I'd see the day. Well, she never really encouraged me. And, you know, they didn't have women in sports like that when she was growing up. So I. I'm so glad that I actually took a leap of faith and let Lois train me. She did a great job.
[00:18:47] She ran. After she had trained me, she went down to Disney and ran the marathon there. I think she's run the Disney marathon six times. She has six medals from doing it. And she got me a T shirt when she was down there that says, we'll run for chocolate, which is a pretty accurate statement, if you know what I mean.
[00:19:13] I'm grateful for her for taking the time and effort to really push me out of my comfort zone and make me get involved in something that trickled down into my daughters. And that was the most rewarding part of all of it. That they became cross country athletes because they saw their mom role model. Well, I don't know if I was actually a role model, I wouldn't go that far. But I would say that they saw their mom getting out there trying to run when they knew I really wasn't an athlete in any way.
[00:19:55] So I look fondly. I still have the T shirt that says will run for chocolate. And I put that on every spring when I start to walk again. I try to walk 10 miles every day now, and I wouldn't mind starting to run again, but I'm not gonna. I'm only gonna run on a track. Maybe it just feels better on my knees.
[00:20:24] But walking is really good, too. But it's not. You're not exerting yourself as much as you could if you're running, as you all well know.
[00:20:35] So there is the story of me becoming an athlete. For a very brief moment in time, I probably would have still continued to run, but we ended up moving back to Michigan after that and just trying to get them settled back into a whole new school system again and get that going.
[00:21:00] So in Michigan is where they ran at State, which was very, very exciting.
[00:21:08] I hope you like this story.
[00:21:13] And for those of you who know me, I hope it put a smile on your face because I know, I remember I got teased so much in high school and they'd be like those stubby little legs. Yeah. And that's about the truth, too. Right. But good for me for trying to encourage my daughters. It was. It brought a whole lot of joy to me. And I still.
[00:21:39] I know you're not surprised, but I still have my tag numbers from the Sea Dog race. So the very first race that I ran.
[00:21:53] Thank you so much for listening to my story today. I hope it put a smile on your face.
[00:22:00] I have as many of you probably know, because I put it on reels now, but I'm starting to market a canvas bag which I think is quite handy. It's got a big button closure, loop. Loop and button closure, two. Two straps. It's got a plastic insert bottom that you can take in and out.
[00:22:24] You could carry quite a lot in it. And the farmers market's going to be coming up here and pretty soon, thank goodness, the winter will be over.
[00:22:34] So they're very handy. They're $10 a piece.
[00:22:39] You can email me at dawn D a W n at the at sign milkman M I l k M o n all1word.com and please include your address and how you would like to pay for it. You can venmo me if you have a Venmo account or you could also send a check.
[00:23:06] So just let me know and then I will respond to your email and we can work out the details together until the next time.
