The Groundhog Race

Something about the dawn of a new year makes people do crazy things. I am no exception. New Year's resolutions for me are a brilliant measuring stick to keep track of the year's failures. And yet I make them each year with heartfelt resolve. This year, improving my fitness level was among the more attainable resolutions I made. In pursuit of that, I am officially registered for the Groundhog Run - my first real race! I can't believe I paid forty bucks just to run...oh wait, I get a free T-shirt, too. And it's for the children...

The course is completely underground - they call the place where it's being held a "subtropolis", or "The Caves," which is interesting. They say that they get an average 3,000 participants, so it must be a pretty big subtropolis! I'm hoping so - an attack of claustrophobia would really effect my time.

While trainging for the Groundhog Race, I was working out on my elliptical, and for the first mile I was reading. I read something interesting. The book is called Discipleship Essentials by Greg Ogden. It says:

"The most recent studies in secular education reveal that modeling is still the most significant learning dynamic. Neither coercion nor rewards shape human behavior as much as a motivated attempt to resemble a specific person."

Isn't that the truth? It certainly is for me, and made me think about my own personal models. There are many.

This running thing for instance. I don't especially enjoy running for the sake of running. It is really challenging to get on that dang elliptical at 9:30 at night, and harder still to make the necessary changes to my habits and lifestyle so that I don't kill myself in the process. So why do I do it? I have a really inspiring model - my sister. I want her motivation, her determination. She has already done one half marathon and now she's training for another. I want to do that, too! (By the way, thinking about your models is a pretty motivational thing to do while you are running. It also helps to listen to some great tunes).

GROUNDHOG'S EVE
What does one do the night before one's first race EVER?

Here's what I did:
1) Dropped my kiddo off for a sleepover. I was not about to deal with him at 6a.m....it's going to be hard enough to deal with myself.
2) Shaved my legs. You're welcome.
3) Went to Walmart to stock up on Runner's Essentials. Or, what I consider to be Runner's Essentials: a cute shirt (it's pink!), a watch to time myself (also pink), kleenex, bottled water, vitamin water (the pink kind, just to be consistent), chapstick, and power bars.
4) Ran two miles and stretched A LOT.
5) Mapquested where I'm supposed to go and how long it'll take me to get there - so I can stay in bed for as long as possible.
6) Took two aleve, in anticipation of the pain to come.

A word about power bars....there are so many to choose from! I swear I stared blankly at five rows of power bars for about ten minutes, completely overwhelmed. I don't get it. They all taste like total crap, why make so many? And the flavors they claim to be....ridiculous. But I guess they can't really call them choclate peanut butter tree bark, or vanilla nut chalk, or berry berry tasteless. I ended up with the snicker's version, for two reasons. One being that I like snickers candy bars so maybe these might be similiar, and two because they are called marathon bars. Sounded like just what I needed.

Did I mention that I caught a cold? Perfect timing. Actually maybe it is. So if I super suck it up tomorrow, I can just shake my head and say "Yeah...I had that bad cold..."

RACE DAY
I'd like to put forward a few disclaimers before I report on my performance in the race:
1) My cold is pretty significant, which did not make breathing very easy.
2) I have only been running for 3 weeks. Before that, it had been like three years since any regular physical activity took place in my life.
3) I think I bought defective power bars, because I never felt any surges of power. Isn't that what they are for?

My original goal was to finish in about thirty minutes. I set that based on my elliptical performance, which has consistently been a ten-minute mile pace. It didn't take very long to realize I was overly optimistic. So, I thought a 35 minute finish would be a more realistic goal.

But, 35 came and went....walkers were passing me. Six year olds were passing me. A girl wearing a shirt that said "It's my first race!" passed me. I thought, "It's my first race, too. Can I have a piggyback?" Speaking of piggybacks, a guy carrying his 7 or 8 year old daughter on his back passed me. That one hurt. And a guy who I swear must have been at least 100 passed me. And let me tell you, he was kicking some serious tail.

I placed 158/185 (women ages 24-29). My finish time: 38:56 [cringe.] Please refer to the previously noted disclaimers. And there's one I'd like to add. Look at the age bracket. I'm 29, which means I had to compete with 24 year olds. Hardly fair, I think. Maybe next year I'll place better, when I get to be the young gazelle matched up against all the pre-menopausal 39 year olds.

There was one really cool moment in my race experience. There were 3200 participants in this race, so as you can imagine, the starting line was just a mass of humanity. Runners standing shoulder to shoulder, jostling for position to break out of the pack. It took awhile, maybe a mile, for the pack to really disperse (meaning: pass me). As I was running in the middle of it, I had the strangest feeling of buoyancy - like I was in a small fishing boat on the ocean. When you are watching a thousand heads bob up and down, and you are bobbing along with them, the simultaneous movement gives the effect of a restless sea, both visually and physically. I wished I had my camera, but I'm not sure I could've really captured the moment.

As much fun as I had re-discovering my inner athlete in the 5K, I swore afterwards that I would never run again. However, I got over that and have set my sights on a four mile race on St. Patrick's Day in Westport. I'm not going to lie; the fact that there will be Irish Ale by the truckload at the finish line had a lot to do with my choice. I think that's what I was lacking in the Groundhog's Race...a proper reward at the finish line.