6 years ago, I ran CC for central high school. I smoked plenty of cigarettes, and spent most of my time wasted or hungover. The first race I ever ran was in Princeton Minnesota. I remeber showing up for the bus to get out there, and my burps smelled like booze. Not the best way to start your running career. I was running JV, because although I ran almost everyday after tennis or hockey practice, I still had my vices....and besides, I was different from most of the girls on the JV and Varsity squads. Many of them where into eating granola and drinking lots of water, and all that silly overrated shit. And...I'd never ran a race before.
I don't remember much about that princeton race, other than about halfway through thinking to myself "why the fuck did I quit tennis for THIS?". I felt aweful. But...I beat ALL the JV/granola girls. I was stoked, but I don't think they were....afterall, they didn't smoke cigs after practice, they ate 3-4 meals a day, they trained hard and intentionally. Me...I wasn't serious about it, unfortunately.
The next race they had me race was Griak. It was a 5k at the U, and the biggest high school race in the country. They bumped me up to varsity to run this race. Not the best idea.... really. My 2nd race EVER, shouldn't have been at the biggest and probably most competitive race in the country. And no one really warned me about it either. They just said, get your elbows out at the begining and don't let anyone push you around.
Okay....so short story long...I went out WAY too fast. I took the first mile faster than I'd ever ran a mile. Sometime probably before mile 2, I found myself near the end of the runners, and noticed folks were dropping out.... what, you can do that? Oh hell no!!
I dropped out right then. I jogged off the course, jogged to my bag, and then jogged to my car and went home. Ha!
Ever since then....I've wanted to run and finish that course. So...I did that this weekend. I decided late the night before, that I'd run "jack's run", which is the same course, hosted by the u of mn CC girls, and is in honor of their late equip manager and friend. I didn't have much for carbs at my house....so my pre-race/night before meal consisted of 1 bottle of james page amber, some cheese and crackers (that tasted old....to old), and 2 small bags of popcorn. Not really the ideal night before a race meal, but that's all I had.
Race day: Woke up early, had some coffee, read about running, and headed to the course. I registered, and put my (optional) team name as "brown", which looking at the results online, I see they omitted that part. Anyhow....got to the course, ran about 3 minutes, used the biff, and lined up....
My first mile felt like garbage, but I was really trying to not go out too fast. I didn't. Ha! Not even close. Sometime after the 2nd mile, I stopped. I puked. And I thought to myself "dammit, not again.....I am not quitting this race again!". And so I kept going. Sometime soon after that, I was puking over my shoulder as I ran. It was nasty....(but kind of badass). I don't remember anything after that, until about 300-400 meters left in the race. I already knew I'd run a shitty race, but I didn't much care at that point. I just wanted to finish. I picked it up as much as I could the last 200 meters or so. I crossed the finish line, and tried to give my race number to some dude. He pointed me down the chute, and so I kind of ping-ponged my way to the end. It sucked...I kept bumping into the ropes and didn't know what the fuck was going on. I gave dude my number, and walked about 10 feet, and puked again.
I don't remember half the race, I barely remember the drive home, and I kind of remember meeting ladia's mom. And that's about it. But.... I finished. It wasn't fast, it wasn't pretty, and it sure wasn't fun...but I finished, I left spike marks in 5 kilometers of that course....that's all I really cared about.
Oh....and HUGE shout-out to the gopher women cross country team. They are ranked 6th right now, dropping 2 spots after pre-nats. But these women are SO awesome. They let me do yoga with them, they cheer me on when I run the shittiest race I've ever ran, and they are so open and supportive and beautiful to eachother. It's really amazing and I feel blessed that they have been so kind to me, and have let me stick my brown toes in their running circle every now and then.