Every Twitter post, every Facebook message: running, running, running. What is the fascination with running? Why is it that as we get older, we think we should automatically become healthier, as if we weren't before, and that running is somehow the answer? When do we realize that as adults, that competitive team sports like soccer, baseball, and basketball are either below us now, or to difficult to do anymore and that our only alternative to the sports we once loved but can only watch are now solo sports like golf, fishing, and running? I just don't get it. I go to the gym on a fairly frequent basis and besides the young muscle heads on the weights, everyone else is running. Elliptical's, treadmills, stair step's, the track, aerobics. . . .it's all running to me, no matter what you call it. So this brings me to this year's Prairie Fire Marathon. I'm sure you've seen the posts, and I'm sure you've read countless articles about it, but I'd thought I'd throw my two cents in as well. Since I was made to run it, I might as well get to talk about it.
Let me first say that I did not run the marathon. I didn't even run the half marathon. I ran the mayor's 5k. Since the wife has me on this "plan" to run with her in Vegas in December, this race lined up with my "training" schedule she has me on. I've stated before, on several occasions, that I hate running. This race was no different. I'm only doing it to stay in shape, keep some of the weight off that I lost in the last few months, and get a nice trip out of season to Vegas out of it. The wife on the other hand seems to love it. Eats the shit right up. Likes running, training, racing, buying the shoes and jelly beans, the whole ordeal. And good for her. If she's found something she likes, then so be it. And I support her. I'm, there when she finishes every time, tell her good job and that I'm proud of her, and makes sure she can get the time she needs to train. Me? I got my full running cross country in high school. My body just doesn't want to do it. 1 mile. 2 miles. 6 miles. It hasn't gotten any easier, and I haven't found a set of songs to make a play list out of to make the time I do it any more enjoyable. I do it, get it done, and then I'm over it. Ran 4 miles this morning. Didn't like it, but I did it.
This race though? These people are nuts. Only in suburbia Kansas or suburbia anywhere do you find stuff like this. And it's every week. These people are fanatical. It was my first experience with a large scale race, but I'm told their all pretty much the same. thousands of people. In every different color of spandex imaginable. thousand dollar shoes, and no shoes at all. It's 50 degree's outside for the race and their barefoot in a speedo? What are these people thinking? They have watch timers, special glasses and and fanny packs. Hand packs to hold drinks. Waist packs to hold multiple drinks. Jelly beans and goo for energy. And energy? You'd think our body's can't make their own. There's bars, drinks, gum, candy, lotions, gels. It doesn't stop. Energy is everywhere and in every form at these events. The events themselves, ridiculous. Paying anywhere from $20 to $100 bucks a pop to run a race. On a city street. Yeah, there's free drinks and eats afterwards, and if I finish I get a t-shirt, but do i need that stuff. Give me $60 bucks and i"ll buy you a shirt and put up a finish line.
So I run my race. It was short and easy. I didn't like it. I didn't improve any time or have any goal. I ran slowly by myself because I didn't see anyone else I knew running the 5k that would want to run slowly with me, but I got it done. No big deal. I then spend the next 3 hours waiting on the wife. I get to people watch. My number two favorite thing to do in my down time after you know what. these races; great place to people watch. The crying, the laughing, moaning, groaning, screams. It's every where. Guys and gals giving it their all for any variety of cancer, AID's, SID's, ALS, Parkinson's; whatever this week's race is for. Discarded clothes every where. Matted grass, mud, and rock across the landscape of pavement. But it is a spectacle I can't stop watching.
It's the people who make these events enjoyable. It's the looks on their faces. It's the gratitude people give you when you finish, regardless of what place you finished in or what race you ran. It's genuine. It's honest. People who have overcome cancer. Beat the disease. Lost the weight. Ran for a loved one lost. The sense of pride they get when they finished, for what they accomplished. the happiness on their faces when they hear strangers cheering them on for finishing something they just started. It's the fulfillment of that goal. That's why people do it. That's what I need to find. I don't have it yet. Simply running to say I ran isn't going to do it for me. It's not running towards anything or for anything. It's just running, and that's why it doesn't get any better or any easier. I'm not sure how you find those things or get those things inside you to create that burn or desire to topple the challenge, but I don't it yet. Might not ever have it. Maybe I should have waited until I did before I wrote this. . . .
No comments:
Post a Comment