{"id":4809,"date":"2010-04-17T16:22:25","date_gmt":"2010-04-17T23:22:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=4809"},"modified":"2010-04-17T16:22:25","modified_gmt":"2010-04-17T23:22:25","slug":"a-case-of-the-human-condition-wait-for-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/a-case-of-the-human-condition-wait-for-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Wait for Me! (Keeping up With the Twenty-Somethings)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"wait<\/a>
Like my big brother of years gone by, my daughter Christina didn’t wait for me. She ran 6 miles in less time than it took me to walk 3. Photos by BF Newhall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Barbara Falconer Newhall<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I was all of three or four years old, pumping away on the pedals of my tricycle, near tears because the big kids were leaving me behind.<\/p>\n

“Wait for me!” I cried.<\/p>\n

Nobody listened.<\/p>\n

\"sidewalk<\/a>
Before I could get my camera out, the younger runners had disappeared up College Avenue. I wanted to cry out, “Wait for me!”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My six-year-old brother Davey and his friends had decided to ride their bikes – actual two-wheelers – all the way around the block. Davey had persuaded his friends to let me tag along, but I couldn’t keep up, and nobody would slow down for me, so little and so\u00a0slow on\u00a0my tricycle, not even my big brother.<\/p>\n

When we reached the other side of the block – far from home – the big kids sped up. In tears, I watched them grow smaller and smaller down the sidewalk, then disappear around the corner.<\/p>\n

Today, this morning – same thing. I watched in dismay as my daughter and a handful of other fit twenty- and thirty-somethings took off running, leaving me behind.<\/p>\n

I decided to record my humiliation with a photo of their trim figures receding in the distance, but by the time I got my camera out, they had all but disappeared down College Avenue.<\/p>\n

Christina had talked me into this. She’d gotten me out of bed at the crack of dawn – 8 a.m. – to meet her Berkeley\u00a0running club at College and Ashby for a six-mile, Saturday morning run to Lake Temescal <\/a>and back.<\/p>\n

At first, I trotted along behind the much-younger runners. But after half a block, I had to face up to reality; I’d never keep up with all those fit young things. But I could do a brisk three-mile walk down College to Broadway in Oakland and back. And that’s what I did.<\/p>\n

I don’t know how my four-year-old self found her way home.\u00a0 Maybe I sucked it up and managed on my own.\u00a0More likely\u00a0Davey eventually came back around the block to get me.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
A sweaty Christina was waiting for me at the corner of Ashby and College.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today I sucked it up. I gave myself a terrific hour-plus walking workout. But by the time I got back to our street corner, the rest of the running club had finished up and left for home. Except for Christina. Still sweaty from her six-mile run, my daughter was standing there, waiting for me.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"wait<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0I was a tiny preschooler, pumping away on my tricycle, near tears because the big kids were leaving me behind. Today, I was a lot older — and left in the dust again. Read more.\u00a0<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[553,34,55,82,554],"class_list":["post-4809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-case-of-the-human-condition","tag-aging-runners","tag-dont-miss","tag-family-stories","tag-on-the-funny-side","tag-twenty-something-daughter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}