Monday, June 9, 2008

Birthiversary Randomness Volume 1


I have the day off this morning and thought I would update the blog. I know, 2x in a month is a lot for me lately. Off topic: Is the show "CHARMED" on ALL DAY. I have been clicking around the awful tv options between 7-10 a.m and CHARMED has been on for 3 straight hours. I didn't even know the show was on for enough years to have 3 hours worth of re-runs. My other options appears to be some sort of Steven Segal movie marathon or 19 different shows about how to exercise to lose weight without exercising. If people would just spend the time and exercise instead of trying to figure out how not to exercise we would be a much thinner bunch of folks in the US. I digress.

Whew! We had quite the weekend of fun. It encompassed the entire gamut of entertainment. We headed to Savannah this weekend for the "BIRTHIVERSARY" celebration of my 30th year and our 5th year of being married. I know it just seems like yesterday, but it has indeed been forever.

The actual reason we picked Savannah is because it also had a 5K this weekend. Yes, Jake and Hilary were going to run 3 miles in a competitive fashion on purpose. Jake had to talk me into it. For anyone who has not seen Jake lately, he is a mere shadow of his former self and suddenly very fit and all about trying out races. For anyone who has not seen me lately, I look basically the same...my hair maybe a little shorter..but I am still very much against competitive physical activities as I suck at them. For anyone that knows me from my younger days I have a rare condition known as "bubble guts" (my mom named it) and feel like puking if any physical activity becomes a competition. I am instantly terrified I will come in last or be left for dead on the side of the road with everyone pointing and laughing as they run by in all their designer gear while I have a coronary or a calf cramp. Fun right? So a 5K on our anniversary should be a good time..

To make a long blog short, we did it. Jake was good about keeping me from freaking out in the herd of runners (all shapes and sizes), none particularly trendily dressed, and some people I was sure I would be able to finish in front of. It was a good situation. Then we get to the end. We had only been passed by one person who we passed back later so I was feeling pretty good despite the fact you could have spooned the air into a glass and drank it. This nice man falls in beside us and hangs out with us from 2.4 miles on, we are chatting it up. His watch is beeping because he is not running fast enough and my watch is beeping because I am running too fast. It was kinda funny. Anyway, he and Jake decide I can definitely catch the girl in front of me before we get across the finish line. She had been walking for a while around the 2.8 mile mark so she was looking tired. I laugh it off, but it keeps coming up and we are gaining on her. Let me establish that I have never, ever, ever run a race. I have never, ever been in "track", cross-country, nor did I really pay attention in PE. I have never, ever dealt with race strategy or any of that stuff. I barely even know anything about running form unless it has to do with pathology that I fix as a PT. So, we turn the corner to run up a hill to the finish line and all the sudden Jake and this guy (I seriously don't know his name) turn toward me and are yelling at me to catch this girl. Seriously like yelling all of this encouraging athletic running stuff like: "stride it out, finish strong, you can do it" and some other stuff that I didn't even understand. My original goal was just to finish in under 30 minutes, but suddenly my goal was to catch this girl and crush her spirit..for absolutely no reason except Jake and some guy were yelling at me to do it and I couldn't tell them no. If it had just been Jake I would have told him to stop smoking crack and there was no way it would happen, but that would have been rude to say to guy-with-no-name. My mother taught me to never be rude. You would have thought it was the damn Olympic time trials or I was running for 1 million dollars because this mildly athletic, newly 30 year old girl started running like she stole something. And I was gaining on the girl in front of me. Then she saw me coming.

I think we maybe had 75 yards let, mostly uphill to the blow-up arch finish line. Anyway, she sees me out of the corner of her eye-apparently I am not sneaky as she was wearing an ipod and still noticed...or maybe it was the two grown men screaming "GET HER" that she noticed. She was not amused by my attempt to catch her (she was wearing some sort of 3 layer short situation but otherwise seemed normal) and had apparently been involved in some sort of prior running program (at least Jr. High) as she seemed to find an additional gear just as I was catching her. She wasn't going to let me beat her...Dangit. So I dug deep inside and tried to find another gear but it turns out I was already in my additional gear and the only other gear option was reverse. Oh my god it was a duel to the finish. I would have shoved her over if I thought I could have gotten away (again, I am not aware of the "rules" of running) with it but suddenly everyone around the finish was watching us and cheering. It was one of the most bizarre things I have done in my adulthood and certainly the craziest in my recent foray into the 30's (it had only been 24 hours) battling the girl to the finish of a charity 5K. Anyway, she beat me by a couple yards. I did come in under 30 minutes which was really cool.

I really enjoyed the race experience and didn't throw up, cramp up, or come in last. Then Jake told me that people don't really race to the finish line at the end....Wow, so this girl and I had an impromptu foot race in front of 100 people. Wow again. I wonder if they will ever invite me back again. I like to bring new experiences to the people!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What a story, Hil. I enhoyed your adventure. Did you come in ahead of Jake and "what's his name"? Sounds like you enjoyed you birthanniversary. Great!
Grammy is just enjoying life a day at a time. Matt and Sarah were here Sunday eve for a visit.
Happy you are back to your blogging. Made my day today.Grammy