Children Running By The lake

There is something magical about the stillness of lakes.

Our visit to Cultis Lake was off-season and it was deserted. The shops in the plaza were shut, there was nobody on the beach, and no boats on the water and of course no one jumping off the jetties into the water. All was eerily calm but it was not empty.

Around the Lake are a large number of houses and cabins. Some of them are used just at weekends and for holidays but there are a fairly large number of permanent residents. As we walked along the path there was the sound of hammering and drilling as a few people were working on their buildings as if preparing for the winter.

As we were walking we met a group of junior school children running the lakeside path. At the front were the fast kids accompanied by an adult who was obviously a practised runner. There was quite a gap and then the larger gaggle of kids in the middle, also accompanied by an adult and then after a long time came the stragglers, also accompanied. I thought it was quite wonderful to see this way of encouraging exercise. The kids were allowed to go at a pace they could manage but there was someone at hand to encourage and help them.

I like the idea of teaching running at an early age with someone running alongside to encourage and support. I don’t know if it is common in today’s schools but it is unlike anything I remember. We had no instruction on improving running efficiency or finding a rhythm to run for longer, or run for enjoyment. It was assumed we all had the basic skill and you would no more teach running than you would walking.

Now I don’t think we make those assumptions. We are worried about the lack of exercise in the population as a whole and are making more effort to develop good habits. Encouraging all kids to run could be very important.