Meghan은 간다, Meghan ya no esta aqui

Where Amazing Happens

"Where Amazing Happens" - You know, the slogan for the NBA at the moment. Their commercials cut to very short clips of star players dunking, amazing jump shots at the buzzer, or great blocks. They say that that the NBA is where amazing happens. Which, you know, is kinda true. Professional athletes score big, and do feats that 99.9% of us can only dream of. And, well, watching men play basketball is ... fun :)

While professional athletes seem amazing, and they can be, they ARE paid millions of dollars, have been coached since they were kids, and have had great opportunities handed to them. I'm fairly certain amazing happens other places as well.

In most aspects, what happened today wasn't AMAZING, but for me, personally, it was. I ran my first race.

For thousands, maybe millions of people, running races is not a big deal. They schedule their lives around trainings, short races, local races, marathons, etc. They know the language, they know what to expect, racing is their life.

I was never athletic growing up. I cringe when I think of most of my P.E. classes (except that game, in elementary school, where you got to roll around on those scooter seats - remember that? Best day in P.E.!). But, three years ago, I took up running seriously. Well, not seriously, but something to commit to. And while one fall I was just lazy and didn't do it, and one fall I broke my foot (NOT while running), it has been in my life for the past three years. The last year I have actually been fairly committed about it - keeping a log, trying to improve times, trying to improve endurance, etc.

But I said I had no desire to run a race. All of those awful memories from P.E. classes do not exactly make me want to PAY to have people watch me run. And while I think I put in a decent mile time for a beginner, it's nothing great.

But today, in Ensenada, there was a small race, and my roommates wanted to do it, so we went for it. Today I completed an 8k (5mile) race. In my mind this seemed more than feasible - I've been putting in 7 mile runs on Sundays, but 5 miles on a course is different than 5 miles of MY choosing. It was more of a trail run, with two small hills, lots of rocks, and a fairly constant incline for quite a while - and I didn't stop once (even though my steps on that last hill were more like tiptoe prances). I gave a decent time (50:50), and I can't believe I did it. I actually didn't even tell people I was doing it, for fear that I would chicken out, or bail out of the race halfway through - but I didn't do either one of those things.

My bib number is going on my wall - for everything it represents.

posted by Meghan @ 10:55 AM