hazel-eyed motivation & summer running
SO�i did it again this year! on saturday, i completed the 4-miler and had fun doing it! nothing beats crossing the finish line as kelly clarkson's "Behind These Hazel Eyes" blares over the speakers! my parents came to watch, the weather was great, the crowd energized me, and i finished within my goal time, even if i was a tad slower than last year. i'm not fast like i was at age 16. [in 1990, i effortlessly sprinted to my best mile time of 6:05 (!)]. but what i lack in speed and joint comfort, i make up for in cardiovascular endurance. i think i could easily have gone several more miles w/o getting winded. perhaps walking or jogging a 1/2-marathon will become a future goal.
this labor day weekend tradition is easily c-ville's biggest & best-known race. as i mentioned, it benefits breast cancer. it touched me last week, when my co-worker ellen personally thanked me for doing it, saying that it benefited her directly. perhaps the best part of the entire run is the "Motivational Mile". along the last mile, the names of women who have/had breast cancer are hung up all along a fence on colorful posters. it's impossible to truly capture its power unless you're there. in a way, its brightness resembles last winter's "The Gates" project in Central Park (NY). in the home stretch, when your legs burn, the sun is getting too hot, and maybe you think you can't go any further or you need to slow to a walk, you see those names, and your adrenaline pumps and you really are motivated to keep going for that last leg.
it's interesting to see how one's definition of success changes w/ age. there were some teenaged girls doing the race on saturday�skinny girls who run h.s. x-country or track and were aiming for perfection in the form of six or seven-minute miles. i saw a lot of my teenage self in those girls. but for the 1st time this year, i also felt completely alien from that former self. as with danskin, i think 4-miler participants are motivated to do this race for a variety of personal reasons. doing an event like this is about so much more than speed, you know? and it's at those moments that i feel like it's possible to conquer (my own) chronic illness. and i guess I'm not alone, as there was a movie made this year, called "Summer Running", which chronicles a young woman w/ debilitating rheumatoid arthritis as she trains for the 4-miler despite the condition. by all accounts (see website) it's an emotional documentary, juxtaposing her story with that of a 34-year old breast cancer survivor.
SO, i think saturday brought triumph & joy to all runners, whether they finished in 24 minutes, or 1.5 hours! in fact, i saw the last woman cross the finish-line and when her name was announced, the crowd let out a huge cheer and wave of applause. can it get better than that? i think not!
