Sunday was the Urban Cow Half Marathon here in Sacramento. For some it is a race they have trained for, for others it is a race that has been used as a training run for the California International Marathon (CIM) in December. While many people run for different reasons and purposes, there is one common connector when it comes to running … YOU F’ING CHOSE IT! Running didn’t pick you, you picked it! You signed up for the race, you buy the shoes, you are the one who committed to getting out and doing this damn thing. So why the long face?
RUN_BMC and I made a last weekend decision to run this specific race for a couple of reasons, 1: it is always more enjoyable to use a race as a training run, I mean let’s be honest 4,000 people on the course with people cheering or running along a somewhat occupied trail … you figure it out, the 2nd: other awesome peeps of 9RUN6 were also doing it, so it gave us a chance to get out and support the pack of awesomeness that was about to take on the course that took runners from Land Park through Downtown Sacramento and back again.
So during the race, I noticed a couple of things … the thing that stood out the most was the unhappy runner face that a high percentage of runners had, not the I’m focused looked, but more of the I’m pissed at the world look… naw scratch that, it was more of the I HATE THIS SHIT look. While some runners had these looks on their faces, the people along the course supporting the event from volunteers to people cheering on the runners had nothing but smiles.
During this specific run Brian, aka Run BMC, and I opted to have some fun along the course while we dropped a fairly decent 1:37:59 for our long run pace. By fun along the course, I mean giving some of our friends like Derrick a sweaty hug during the race, while he was in his nice dry clothing. We stopped to take selfies and fist bump with the FitFam6 crew, who set up a #9RUN6 and #WeRunSocial cheer station along the course. We even stopped to take a selfie with the dude wearing the Harey Tortuga costume. Conversations with other runners even went down with guys like John Blue of Sacramento Running News (http://www.sacramentorunning.com), who by the way threw down a 1:30:xx along the course running a progression run.
I mean there are so many opportunities to smile, give high-fives, and thank the volunteers along the course and even thank the people who come out to cheer for random strangers like yourself and us! Remember we signed up for this so quit with the I HATE THIS SHIT look when you’re running a race.
My challenge to you … start having fun on your runs (even if your run isn’t going as planned) or find something else to do that will put a smile on your face when you’re doing it!
9RUN6 