On Saturday morning my alarm went off half an hour earlier than it would during the work day to volunteer at "The Trailbreaker", where my friends would be running a half marathon. I have never actually been on the other side and volunteered at a race instead of participated. If you've never done it, I can only recommend it. It gave me a whole new appreciation for the work the volunteers are doing (not that I didn't already appreciate them before).
The biggest lesson I learned: If you are running a race and you know somebody who volunteers at the registration desk (especially if there is no pre-race packet pick-up and everybody has to pick up their stuff on race morning), don't be mad if they don't even remember your name. It's not personal; at that moment they probably didn't even remember their own name. Uum, yes I am talking about myself...It was actually my half marathon's coach's name from last year, that I couldn't remember in the craziness of the moment. She pretended to not be offended. I wish the craziness would come with a little bit of amnesia, so I wouldn't even remember my embarrassment.
After registration, I went outside and stood by the finish line, first watching the 5Kers finish their race and then slowly watching the half and full marathoners make it across. It wasn't one of the beautiful days we have had in the last weeks, and I wasn't prepared to freeze that much. But I was determined to take pictures as my friends crossed the finish line. With blowing on my fingers to keep them warm and jumping up and down, I not only made everyone wonder, why I didn't just go inside, but also managed to hold out until I could take the pictures I had waited for. And I got them in the picture. Yeah. Well, I concentrated so hard that I forgot to cheer as they crossed, but I guess you can't have it all. Cheers now! You two rock!
Sunday morning (today), I decided to test out the route I will be running for my half marathon in six weeks. After getting lost on my way there, I was glad, when I finally made it and could set foot onto the trail. It was a beautiful run and besides a man with some huge radio headphones, who wished me a nice run, and a couple of other runners at the beginning of the trail, I had the whole route all to myself. Didn't see a single soul and didn't mind.It was an educational run for me as I learned a few things on the way:
- My half marathon this time will be nothing like the last one. I think I will be much prouder this time, as I will have conquered many ups and downs (hopefully just trail wise)
- Sandy spots are much harder to run on
- I am crazy, because I liked the hills much better than the flat 2 miles at the end. I guess, when there is varying terrain with rolling hills, you never know what awaits you around the next corner. It's like a child on an exploration, while on flat terrain you just wait for it to be over (this is a personal view and I don't expect anybody else to agree with me)
- I like running 9 miles more than running 2 or 3 (again, don't expect you to agree).
- I will trust my own instinct instead of a map or a gadget to tell me how to get to the trail head.
- I will trust my own instinct instead of a map or a gadget to tell me how to get back home from the trail head (yes, I didn't learn on the way there, so I had to not trust myself again) --sometimes it takes two wrongs to learn a lesson
- Next time I spend less time driving to a trail and more time running on it
- Nature is still worth it, see below.
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