Your alarm clock has woken you up (for the second or third time) but you’ve been half awake all night anyway, it’s just time now to drag yourself out of bed.
You can’t believe you’re awake this early. You are exhausted but not.
You’ve laid out all your clothes already including your race number, maybe you’ve even bought a new outfit for the occasion: It’s Race Day. And it’s your first.
You try to eat a decent breakfast, maybe a whole wheat bagel with peanut butter or oatmeal and a banana but your stomach is in nervous knots so you do your best. You have coffee, some water, but still, you’re nervous.
You grab a GU.
It’s time to go.
You arrive and you park and it is still dark and you’re wondering where all of these people came from and how they all knew about this day because it is their race day too. They all look like “real” runners. They think the same of you too.
You feel like everyone is staring at you and that they all know it’s your first time which they don’t. They are all just as nervous as you.
You are amazed by the number of people who surround you right now, people of all shapes and sizes and ages, there are jogging strollers, elderly people, families, even amputees. Everyone around you is about to run a race before most people are even awake and the energy is exciting and it pumps through your veins.
You’re amazed at how friendly everyone is, chattering excitedly about the weather, the course, you wonder why it’s called a “race” and why it’s a competition because it’s really a community of we’re in this together.
You now have a new bond with a couple hundred (or even thousand) of your new best friends.
You take your place at the starting line, sort of in the middle, toward the back because you’re nervous. It is almost time. You turn your I-Pod on and get ready.
This is what you’ve trained for.
This is why you’ve dragged yourself out into the neighborhood day after day, out onto the treadmill, to the gym, all of that sweating and questioning yourself and digging down deep to find what you got. The moment is here and it is now.
It is time to run.
You have your best race. Or you have your worst.
But whatever happens, you cross a finish line and the finish line means so much more than a simple line that you’ve crossed. It’s a goal you’ve set, a mountain you’ve climbed and a boundary you have just pushed.
You’ve just run your first race.
You are hot and sweaty and it hurt to get there, but you’re curious now. How far can I go?
The sky is the limit.
* * *
What was your first Race Day experience like? Never ran one? This week we're giving away a shot to run one over at the Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans. Just so you can experience it for yourself. Head on over to the Sisterhood for your shot, we'll pay for it! If you've been looking for an excuse to do it for a long time this is it!
