Ok, so maybe I am not pissed at them…maybe I am super pissed at me.
The Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon in Savannah was this past weekend. However, it has been sold out since August. I didn’t even run my first under 10 minute mile until mid September. It wasn’t on my radar.
Ok, so maybe it was on my radar. I get lofty like that. I had a bunch of friends that were running it. Some were doing the full and lots were doing the half. I can do a half. 13.1? Sure, why not? I had already scored a 10 mile run (it was slow, but I finished). Yeah, too bad it’s sold out. Because I could so do that. Yeah.
Then came the day I logged an 11 mile run at a 9:43/mile average. That was cool. Then came this tweet from Bigbie… (one of the best running buddies. Ever.)
The “this” he is referring to is The Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon. Evidently some spots had opened up. As in not sold out. As in Cinderella can go to the ball. As in me. As in 13.1. In front of people…really, behind people.
Yeah, no. Quick brush off about registration fee and work and volunteerism…blah, blah, blah. End of subject.
I mean really, those things are a big deal. And who wants to run a race they have never even seen before, right? And really, isn’t it more responsible to not hurry these kinds of things and just make sure you are super prepared? Right?
Whatever. I chickened. Worse – I self sabotaged. I worked so hard to convince myself that this was a great decision that I had almost convinced myself I wasn’t really a runner. My run log last week was seriously lacking. Why? Because maybe I would never be prepared and maybe I started too late and maybe there are all those folks out there who really are runners and won’t that be embarrassing…
Now it was Saturday afternoon…Sunday…reports, stories, pictures are coming in. It was great, it was fun, it was wonderful. And none of them got handcuffed by the imposter police because they didn’t score a 6 minute pace.
And I missed it. Worse than missing it. I chose not to do it. I allowed my brain to jack up yet another wondrous capability that is mine.
So this morning I said screw it. I laced up my shoes and went for a run. Some where around mile 2 I felt better. Somewhere around mile 5 I thought about when I would turn around. Right around mile 6 I realized – I am going to run 13.1 today – because I can!
And that is exactly what I did. In under two hours.
I didn’t get a medal or a picture to post on facebook. But I did get a front row seat at life lesson reminder number…well, it’s a big one.
Forget fear. Forget brain jacks. Forget made up lies about inability and substandard fortitude.
Guess who will be there November 3, 2012 ready to eat 26.2 for breakfast. Until then, I have some new words to remember.
“Do it for fun…even if it is Monday.”
I’m hoping that if I kick enough people in the butt when they need it, there’ll be more than enough of ya’ll around to kick mine when I do. We all need it though at some point, and Saturday my timeline was FULL of Twitter coaches for over 4 hours, and I read every one best I could while I ran, because I needed it.