“Stop being lazy!
If someone can overcome Boston, you can run a freakin’ 5K at an
uncomfortable pace. No
excuses.”
These thoughts (and others than contain more profane
language) ran through my head Friday night as I participated in the first annual
NoDa Brewing Company 5K, which supported a local family that was injured in the
Boston bombings. It was a hot,
balmy evening, and while running sub-six minute miles, the devil in me lamented
why I couldn’t just enjoy the start of the weekend with a good, cold beer.
A few minutes before, I had been standing in the middle of a
Villa Heights street listening to Boston victim Nicole Gross greet the
crowd. I had recognized Nicole
from the national circulation of her haunting picture that seemed to capture
all the shock, horror and devastation of that bloody day in Boston. She thanked everyone for their support
and expressed gratitude for all that the city of Charlotte has done to try to
help her family. As Nicole became
choked up during her address, I started feeling tears well up in my eyes as
well. While I did not look around
at the other runners and spectators (partly out of embarrassment of how visibly
upset I’m sure I looked but also in respect of others), I still sensed that I
was not the only one that felt so moved by Nicole’s words.
As we weaved through the Villa Heights and NoDa
neighborhoods, I tried to tap in to the strength of Nicole and the countless other
brave survivors and heroes of Boston.
I was also thankful for the company of the other runners around me. While running may appear to be an
individual sport, it is amazing how much easier it is to run quickly and/or for
a further distance when you do not have to accomplish the task by yourself.
Recently, I read an interview on Runnersworld.com with
Shalane Flanagan who came in 4th place at Boston this year. In addition to the article quoting
Boston area-native Shalane Flanagan saying “I am just pissed off” in reference
to the bombings, there is also an interesting remark by Shalane that details
her thoughts at one point during the race to team-up with her training partner,
Kara Goucher, in order to get the pack moving.
While runners can sometimes receive minimal benefits from
drafting off of other runners, the main reason why they race in packs (also
called clustering) is mental. If
you inadvertently start falling off your pace, the fact that the other runners
around you begin moving more quickly will alert you to speed up. You are also sharing the same goal, the
same challenge, and the strength of runners around you should make you feel
stronger. Most ultramarathons
(races greater than 26.2 miles) will allow a participant to have a pacer for
the last part of the race to encourage a runner to keep going when his body
screams to stop and to possibly even provide rational thoughts when the ultramarathoner’s
mind begins to shut down or worse – hallucinate.
The same thing goes with cheering spectators – Us runners
run off the energy of the crowd as much as we do our cliff bars and goo
gels.
As my body heated up and my muscles became taxed, I began to
think that maybe I should drop out of the race when we rounded the curve that
came close to my home. I could
flush my timing chip down the toilet like a fugitive freeing himself of his
tracking device, and no one would ever know. However, as I passed by a row of homes around mile two of
the 5K, I heard a little voice saying “Look Mom! There’s a girl!”
At that point, I knew I couldn’t quit.
In 1966, Bobbi Gibb became the first woman to run the entire
Boston Marathon. After her
application had been rejected by the director of the marathon (who wrote a
letter stating that women are not physiologically able to run marathon
distances) Bobbi snuck in to the race after hiding in bushes near the starting
line. With the support of the male
runners around her and the cheering fans on the sidewalks, Bobbi kicked some serious
butt that day and led the way for generations of women runners.
Maybe it was the community of my fellow runners, or my
desire to prove that a girl can run with the boys, or maybe I knew how almost
self-centered and weak I would seem if I couldn’t run 3.1 hard miles after all
Boston and its victims have been through, but I finished the race Friday night
in 18:19…Not the greatest time in the world, but a hard effort none-the-less.
While I cannot even speculate if I would be able to see a
silver lining in the tragedy if I had been directly affected, I will say that I
am always amazed at how strangers come together in a time of darkness to give
strength and provide help to those they don’t even know. It is a reminder to me that in running
and in life, we can go further and faster with others rallying around us.
This Week’s Mileage: 41
This Week’s Beer Choice: Palmetto Pale Ale (Charleston, SC) http://www.palmettobrewingco.com/
Read David Willey’s entire interview with Shalane Flanagan
at http://www.runnersworld.com/elite-runners/shalane-flanagan-i-am-just-pissed
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