August 28, 2019
This blog started as a conversation several months ago…
I am coaching a group of novice and returning runners to race in their local Thanksgiving Day Road Races so I decided to pull out my results from my first Manchester Road Race. I was exactly where a lot of these new athletes are now. It took me a long time to complete that 4.7 miles….but there are always two sides of the coin. I was running with a group that wanted to do their best, but was going to have fun doing it…I was surrounded by people with Jingle Bell hats and dressed up as everything from Christmas Trees to the Blues Brothers. One year I even got to run with the Golden Girls. The first year I was able to start in one of the seeded corals (What? That is a thing?) I later asked my husband who was spectating why there weren’t as many runners in costume. His response…”They were behind you Babe”. Huh…
Fast forward a few years. I was running the Newport Half Marathon and wanted to keep in conservative, so I lined up further back that I typically would have. And that’s where I found them! No costumes…but I referred to them later as the “banana eating, dancing people”. So that’s what was happening back there! I had forgotten! This group was so fun! Did they want to run their best? YES! Were they going to forget to have a good time? NO!
When I first got into triathlon, I found myself in the back of the pack again. This time it wasn’t where I wanted to be and I was dealing with a lot of anxiety. When I say I was in the back…that is no exaggeration. It’s wonder I didn’t DNF my first several races because I was barely making the swim cut off. Me and my own personal kayaker playing beat the clock…NO JOKE!
A couple of years into triathlon I finally decided that I was done fooling around. No more skipping the pool. No more taking the winter off from swimming. Time to double…OK, triple…my efforts.
I am not a super strong swimmer (YET). But I have worked my way into the middle of the pack. At IRONMAN 70.3CT this year I found myself not only swimming rather calmly in the middle of the pack, but was able to take a really good look at what was happening around me. I looked at the other swimmers. Some swimming with ease, some needing to stop and rest at kayaks and buoys, some struggling to stay on course, some doing the breast stroke or back stroke, some not putting their face in the water. All this time I thought I was the only one freaking out and struggling. NOPE. I was just so far back, I had no idea what was happening in front of me.
So where ever you are in the pack…front, middle, of back…take a really good look around. Because no matter who the athlete is or where they fall in the pack, they want to do their best and are going to struggle along the way. If you can remember to slow down for a moment and breathe, you might just notice that you are not alone and remember to have fun along the way!
XXOO
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