hey there little guy

I ran into the cutest kid today. I was on a run on the Capitol Crescent Trail and I was being all meticulous about measuring my mile splits... until I saw this boy riding his bike up the hill at River Road. He was struggling with a big gray thing while trying to pedal up the hill. He ended up steering right into the retaining wall and eating it! I wanted to laugh, he was so not even close to making it up that hill by himself. I didn't though, and offered to help him out in the most dignity-preserving way possible. I ended up running him home, holding his PE gear (the big gray thing turned out to be a sweatshirt/sweatpants phys ed fashion statement).

As he biked and I ran, we chatted about junior high, and what a pain it was to bring home PE clothes every week. I admitted that I'd sometimes forget. About halfway to this kid's place I realized, "Hey! It's still hot out! This is no weather for sweats!" I shared this realization with him and he told me that the sweats were a purchase made in anticipation of the coming wintry weather.

I kind of wish I had asked his name; then I could write about this here without calling him 'kid' and 'little guy.' I figured that it was a stretch for him to accept help from a stranger, though, and a name query might have set off the warning bells. And then he'd have been crashing his bike every three seconds all the way home instead of getting help from me. I gotta tell you though, it was such a trip talking to this kid. He was nonplussed that a random runner was carrying his gym gear. By the time I dropped him off, I had backtracked a good distance and my mileage was incalculable (which was a shame because I was running fast today). It was totally worth it though. What a sweetie.