Original title: When a father decides to push his child to run a marathon
China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily reporter Liang Xuan
After pushing his son Robb (pseudonym) through 67 marathons and other road running events, Luo Shujian began to think about modifying their “war horse” – a blue children’s pushchair bought online for 8,000 yuan on “Double 11” This cart has accompanied the father and son in nearly 50 races, and has also carried Robb’s six or seven years of growth.
Luo Shujian pushes his son on the marathon track.Photo provided by interviewee
Robb is 14 years old this year, but he suffered severe brain damage due to 15 minutes of severe asphyxia at birth. His intelligence is only one or two years old, and his physical development is relatively slow. Standing 1.27 meters tall and weighing just over 30 kilograms, he can sit safely in a stroller and follow his father’s footsteps to feel the wind in different cities and seasons.
But the careful Luo Shujian found that “the child is a bit tall and may feel uncomfortable sitting for a long time.” He planned to modify the car to “lengthen it a little bit and make it a little bigger.” Although he was not sure about his son’s development speed, ” It may grow very quickly at once, or it may grow very slowly.” But Luo Shujian just wanted to make Robb more comfortable on the track. “Changing the car” is not an urgent but very necessary matter.
In 2015, when he first started pushing Robb to “marathon”, Luo Shujian used a four-wheeled wheelchair. He still remembers that on the Hangzhou Mini Marathon track, he competed with the uncontrolled wheelchair in the rain while avoiding the crowd at any time. , while observing Robb’s condition. In the end, he ran 7 kilometers for more than an hour, and his physical energy was exhausted. However, he was delighted to find that “while I was running, Robb was smiling from ear to ear and drooling,” especially when he surpassed others. Sometimes, Robb would clap his hands happily. These actions made Luo Shu firmly believe that “Robb has the desire to chase and he likes the atmosphere of running.”
Since then, marathon running has become Luo Shujian’s top priority after work. He searched for information and self-study, explored training on his own, and found that when the cadence is around 180 steps/minute, the efficiency and energy economy of running will be greatly improved. Therefore, he strives to make He “keeps himself close”. If he runs too slowly, Robb’s energy will be exhausted and his mood will deteriorate. “So I have to get to the finish line as soon as possible.” In Luo Shujian’s view, Robb is the reason why he runs with all his strength.
After more than 20 games, in order to better control the direction and improve safety, Luo Shujian changed his four-wheeled wheelchair into a three-wheeled children’s stroller. On the left hand side is an anti-slip belt to prevent the car from slipping, and on the right hand side is a He braked and put a five-star red flag on the front of the car. As soon as he started running, the flag would dance in the wind, and Robb would look at the flag and clap his hands excitedly. Gradually, from mini marathon to half marathon and full marathon, Luo Shujian took Luo Bo to run for 8 years. On the tracks in more than 20 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Jinhua, Wuxi, Lishui, Lanzhou, Guangzhou, etc., the father and son Always rush to the finish line together, “The best full marathon result is 3 hours and 28 minutes.”
Before taking his son to “horse racing”, Luo Shujian “didn’t care much about sports”, but from the moment he became a father, running seemed to be his instinct. 47-year-old Luo Shujian is a courier in an industrial town in Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province. He goes out at 7 a.m. every day and shuttles between more than 50 buildings to deliver and pick up packages. He works 12 hours a day, sending and receiving an average of two to three hundred packages. pack. In order to support his family, he also worked many part-time jobs: sweeping roads in the village to earn money, selling insurance, and selling fruit online as an agent…
When Robb was 1 year old, Luo Shujian saw a documentary introducing Dick and his sons in the United States in a QQ group for patient rehabilitation. Dick Hoyt pushed his son Rick Hoyt, who suffered from cerebral palsy, to participate in the program for more than 30 years. More than 1,000 marathons and triathlons. In the film, the son said something to his father that impressed him deeply, “You pushed me to run, and I felt like a normal person.” Luo Shujian remembered that he was shocked when he first watched the film. He once thought, “If one day, my Robb recovers, I will take him to experience the magic of sports like this.”
In 2015, China’s road running events entered a blowout stage. After discovering that his brother was also “running horses”, Luo Shujian decided to turn his wish from five years ago into action, “pushing his son to measure the world with his footsteps.” In order to be able to get on the track, he went for a morning run in the mountains at 5 a.m., gradually increasing the distance from 5 kilometers to 10 kilometers and then 35 kilometers. His weight also dropped from 120 kilograms to 106 kilograms. It was another persistence that exceeded the expectations of my family. “It seems that I am giving, but in fact all my changes are brought to me by Robb. He made me fall in love with sports and made me more caring and responsible. I I will do my best to do what I can.” Luo Shujian used running as an example to explain that the father and son support each other, “Although my shoulders and arms will be very sore when running with a pushcart, when I feel very tired, the car will help me support it. Although I am pushing Robb and running, But I feel like we’re the same person.”
After running, mountain climbing, swimming, and cycling, Luo Shujian took Robb to experience more and more sports. “When he touches sports, he becomes more excited. He even becomes more interested in football games when watching TV.” He found that sports not only brought him closer to his son, but also allowed him to find a sense of control over his life. “I have challenged cross-country races myself, and I can get into the top three in small events.” The sense of achievement on the cross-country track belongs to Luo Shujian’s time. But so far, he has never participated in a race alone on the marathon track. In the heavy rain of the 2018 Xiamen Marathon, the father and son stopped at 10 kilometers together; in the charity road running event, they raised funds for children with leukemia together. “It feels like we’re capable of doing more.”
Luo Shujian’s original intention of taking his son to “horse racing” was “I want my son to see the world.” However, after he and Robb became the Chinese version of “Dick and Son” on the track, he also hoped that “children like Robb can be seen and seen by society.” Accept”. During the years when he was taking his son to recovery, he saw children who could not bend their bodies “like chopsticks”, children abandoned in hospital corridors, “all kinds of families”, and occasionally parents with similar situations came to him. Ask about running with your kids.
“Usually around 30 kilometers, Robb will become irritable, and I will also enter the ‘hitting the wall period’ of physical discomfort.” At this time, Luo Shujian will stop, help Robb change his diapers, chat with him, “Slow down for a while before starting the road. “. But on the marathon track of life, he said frankly that growing up with Robb, he had never had to “hit the wall”. “If he was a normal child, I would not have been able to come into contact with such a group, and I would not have been able to run all over the world like I do now. All over the country.” In Luo Shujian’s view, in many families with special children, many parents are “inspired” by their children to become “superhuman”. Some organize charity activities and some join rehabilitation institutions, but they have no extraordinary abilities and only hope. Through running, everyone can face life and their children more optimistically.
Luo Shujian once had a definition of “happiness”: “It is a stupid father who meets a stupid son.” In the early years, he had hoped to take Robb to the Boston Marathon to see the statues of Dick and his son one day, but each marathon failed. After running down, his mentality has changed, “Cherish the moment and don’t force it”, because now what fills his heart is “Thanks to my son for giving me the strength to stand on the starting point again.”
China Youth Daily, Beijing, January 29
2024-01-29 23:45:00
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