Racing was a blast. Running with a group of people seems easier than running alone every day. Now I really hope a couple of my buddies catch the bug like they keep saying they want to. I learned a lot today; like I can run harder longer, and should have pushed more for negative splits (7:59, 8:10, 8:56 for last 1.1). And I wish now that I'd know where the Finish line was before the race started.
Considering myself a novice, I mostly tried to do what those who looked like real runners did. I waited just in front of the couples holding hands at the start, and was able to pick out a couple of people early on that I thought I could follow. I passed the first guy just over a mile in, and finished about 10 seconds behind the other guy. At the end, a different guy that I leapfrogged a couple of times, asked about the tattoo on my right calf. He used it to recognize me as someone to pace off of. That felt nice.
The tattoo is the Serenity Prayer. I’ve been clean for 8 years, 6 months, and 4 days. Since that day in ’98, I’ve picked up all the habits I had before I got involved heavily with drugs. It started with enjoying family, golf, hockey, dogs; and more recently, loving and anticipating my own family. Crossing a bridge over the Mississippi, it occurred to me that running a race is the last hobby for me to regain. Of course it’s not really a hobby yet, it was only one race. But I think I’ll do it again. (That almost the exact same phrase I used to become a vegetarian, eight years ago.)
After the first half mile, I realized I passed many of the real runners I’d first used as benchmarks. But not the guy pushing the stroller. And I wanted advice on buying my own.
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