The Human Race

Let me just preface what I am about to tell you in saying that I do not run. I walk in the mornings to get my bearings, and I try to practice yoga six days a week, but a runner I am not. But last Sunday while my girlfriends Julie and Suzi and I had brunch with our other friend, Jon, we all got to talking about the race that was to occur that evening.

Jon was already signed up and Julie (an AMAZING athlete) really wanted to go and Suzi was on board and because I’d never run in a race before I said “why not?”

So after we finished up at Starlite, we motored over to the late registration booths, signed up, picked up our racing shirts and the electronic chips that we fastened to our shoes and headed to Jon’s pool to sunbathe until the race at 6:30PM.

As we sleepily laid beside the pool and the hours blazed by, we all kinda started to get excited about running in a race that would be held simultaneously in countries all over the globe…

Then, after we all put our red racing shirts on and headed down to the starting line, all of us felt the first surge of adrenaline lighten our steps…

After waiting for about 20 minutes, the race finally started and the moment the mass of red began to move, like a thick rope of freshly spun yarn, this line of red began moving in unison and just to be a part of that movement was inspiring.

We all tried to stay together and then Julie bolted ahead. I knew I had to pace myself as it was a 10K, so I hung back with Suzi. But there were 15,000 people all trying to move forward at the same time, and I suddenly felt as though I couldn’t breathe, so I found a line of open pavement and surged ahead.

The course was all hills for the first four miles, but I clocked in at 34 minutes on mile four, so I was feeling pretty darn good.

I powered on and finished the race in just under an hour at 54:37!!!

My body was covered in goose bumps and my face was the color of my shirt, but I felt incredible!!! What luck!

Minutes later, my legs began to cramp to the point of paralysis, so I chugged two bottles of water and stretched a bit…

The next day, I could hardly get out of bed my legs were so tight and yoga that evening was not a pretty site, but getting to be a part of the Human Race was well worth it.