4:24 p.m.,
Sept. 02, 2003
Oh, I have been neglectful of this site. It's not a "I don't want to do this anymore" thing or a "too many people I know read this so I can't be honest" type of a thing. It's more a time management sort of thing.
Anyway.
I am running a race in two weeks, five days and 16 hours. It's the first race I'll have run in 12 years or so.
I used to participate in some forced activity in grade school, competing in track and field events with the inbred children of prison guards that made up the bulk of my elementary school population. I never did very well and sometimes wondered if my gym teacher's entire reason for holding these events was entirely to humiliate me and my stumpy legs (which were even more stumpy when I was younger).
I wonder if cruel gym teachers realize what a terrible effect they have on the less athletically gifted students they teach. I was constantly taught that because I couldn't run a mile in eight minutes, I wasn't any good. (The same goes for my complete ineptitude in basketball, which was the Big Sport in this horrific small town). It really turned me off of fitness and sports. So I wasn't a superstar - not everyone can be. But I probably would've stuck to a running regimen if someone had told me at 12 that running a 11:30 mile was okay.
So why, then, am I running a race?
I'm not running this race to win. I'm not really even running it to come in the middle. Honestly, I'm not going to be upset if I come in dead last, so long as I run the whole thing.
It's really about making and achieving goals. It's a distance I've never ran before (although I'm close) and I want that sense of accomplishment. Plus, the proceeds benefit a group that promotes girls' self-esteem through running. I like the idea of being part of something bigger.
It's going to be a lot of work over the next three weeks (I'm not starting from scratch, mind you, but I do need to keep up my training), but it's going to be worth it. It's about the journey not the destination blah blah blah. Plus, I think it's going to be fun to have people standing around, cheering me on as I chug around Bucktown.
And there's a beer truck at the end, which makes it much, much better than any stupid elementary school track-and-field day could ever be.