I don't know what's inherently wrong with me that I'm incapable of doing any sort of physical activity/exercise without subtly making it a competition. Particularly when it involves running (or soccer). Swimming laps alongside 70 year-old veterans in the lap pool? Competition. Pacer test alongside the elementary school kids at work? Competition. Running on a treadmill directly next to someone else at the gym? Competition (and yes, I am taking a peak to see if I'm going a faster speed than you). Race against my nephew to see who can run to the other side of Grandma's house first? Competition (and I'll probably push him in the opposite direction before I take off). Jogging around a track? Yep, you'd better believe I'm going to count the times I lap you.
Rather than fight these competitive urges, in my adult life I have found running races to be a great outlet for these at-times toxic levels of competitive drive. So, it is no surprise that when I showed up to my first marathon group training run on 6/5/18 I was in full competition mode. I was literally amongst a group of people who are meant to support and push each other through the next couple months of training to complete their best marathon, but my default mode is "how am I going to beat these people."
The environment of first arriving to that training group felt quite theatrical (maybe only to me). Was everyone judging me on my Costco-brand, ill-fitting leggings and my Asics running shoes that were, like, SooOooOo four models ago?! It was also intimidating in the sense that 90% of people had high-tech, huge running watches, fancy belts, hand held water bottles, or compression socks. I'm honestly just proud of myself that over the last year I've at least transitioned away from always running in old soccer t-shirts and shorts.
Anyway, I would also describe the experience of arriving to the training group as somewhat of a combo between the confusion of showing up to your first ever cross-country practice (what do you mean there are DRILLS we do for running? Shouldn't we just go out and run as fast as we can in order to get better??), the butterflies of competing at your first track meet, and the determination of your first soccer tryout, rolled into one. Add into that all the fact that I'm now an adult and should not feel some of these immature tendencies and insecurities, and you get a bit of a sense of how things were unfolding.
Upon arrival I noticed there were already cliques that had formed (was it just a couple of friends who happened to have innocently signed up to run together, and not a maliciously formed clique? Maybe. Or maybe the enemies have already started banding together). As an attempt at friendly conversation, I asked one individual if everyone there was for the running group. This individual nodded "Yep." then returned to their smartphone obligations. Nothing like a warm welcoming!!! Whatever. Game on.
All competitiveness aside (for now), this first group training was very informative and a great introductory session. I'm very excited to be running with a training group for the first time ever, and to have a real running coach! After a short warmup run we went through some running drills to perfect our running form and posture, which I'm certain will have a large impact on my running efficiency. The coaches seemed very knowledgeable and friendly, and I'm sure that eventually I will get to know more runners in my group and *gasp* maybe even make friends through the natural camaraderie that forms with group suffering. Should be a great next four months!
Back to reality/my competitive side: next week we are doing 5k trials and I can't wait to see how many people I beat :D
122 days til Marathon Day!
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