slow and steady might not win the race...but it sure as hell finishes!
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the longest weekend in human existance, the Pictured Rocks Run for Shelter Race 2006, taking place the last weekend in June. Kalamazoo to Walled Lake, Walled Lake to Marquette, Marquette to Houghton, Houghton to Marquette, Marquette to Munising, Munising to Walled Lake, Walled Lake to Kalamazoo...Total hours spent in the car: 28. Total number of self help books read: 1. Total number of Magazines read: 3. Total Hours spent running: 2.44. Total Miles Ran: 13.1. Total number of "stink hills" i ran up: 1 (too many) Number of total feet I climbed: 900. Number of times I wanted to give up: oh about once every mile. Number of times I actually gave up: ZERO!
It was harder than I remember...most likely because the training I did leading up to the race was minimal if any. Stink hill, or I as I will lovingly refer to it as in the future as "shit hill" was steaper than I remember. The scene of me scrambling up this 300 foot incline hill MUCH similar to a mountain lion searching for his pray, while coughing and having an asthma attack was i'm sure comparable to a commercial for the marines. There weren't many people that partipated in the race, which only made my pathetic running ability more noticable. But I guess the most important thing that I took away from this event is that I finished.(yay). Even though during the race I had thoughts of actually hoping that I would hurt myself in hopes of being removed from the race 'against my will', and being the out of town hero that severely injures them self and still insists that they want to finish...but of course they can't. If that's not the spirit of a true champion...i don't know what is. The trip was filled with every father daughter conversation you could fit into 8 hour long car rides. I also got to see my favorite 28 year old which made me very, very happy. When all was said and done...the race was over, the blisters had bandaids covering them, and my dad and I were headed South bound, we decided to make the race an annual tradiditon, so I guess next year I just have to get more prepared so that my 54 year old dad doesn't have a time comparable to his 22 year old daughter. It was a humbling, painful...and downright awesome experience where I learned the lesson, you might not always finish first...but as long as you finish strong that's all that you can expect from yourself.
It was harder than I remember...most likely because the training I did leading up to the race was minimal if any. Stink hill, or I as I will lovingly refer to it as in the future as "shit hill" was steaper than I remember. The scene of me scrambling up this 300 foot incline hill MUCH similar to a mountain lion searching for his pray, while coughing and having an asthma attack was i'm sure comparable to a commercial for the marines. There weren't many people that partipated in the race, which only made my pathetic running ability more noticable. But I guess the most important thing that I took away from this event is that I finished.(yay). Even though during the race I had thoughts of actually hoping that I would hurt myself in hopes of being removed from the race 'against my will', and being the out of town hero that severely injures them self and still insists that they want to finish...but of course they can't. If that's not the spirit of a true champion...i don't know what is. The trip was filled with every father daughter conversation you could fit into 8 hour long car rides. I also got to see my favorite 28 year old which made me very, very happy. When all was said and done...the race was over, the blisters had bandaids covering them, and my dad and I were headed South bound, we decided to make the race an annual tradiditon, so I guess next year I just have to get more prepared so that my 54 year old dad doesn't have a time comparable to his 22 year old daughter. It was a humbling, painful...and downright awesome experience where I learned the lesson, you might not always finish first...but as long as you finish strong that's all that you can expect from yourself.