Water Running - with Colleen and Elaine today. Interesting chat with Colleen about running, persona and the possibility that running may be done for us. Running is unique to other sports. It provides a bond of competition and training for the family of runners.
I am signed up for a 5K Cookie Chaser race this saturday. Sylvie is letting me use her expensive camera to take pictures. My long time running buddy, Diana, (Dianamal - very successful triathlete) is putting on the race to benefit the Girl Scouts. I will take many pictures for her web site.
Broozer Bruce Running Shorts: 28th day countdown
Anxiety of First Race Day - I would not say Broozer was a scaredy cat or a baby broozer, maybe just not confident in his ability. Broozer's first race was the Provo River half marathon. He would not sign up for the race unless I would run with him. 1,900 runners were at the start of the race, including Sylive and Dianamal (Diane). Bruce was so nervous he wanted to start at the very back of the pack. I could not convince him that he could run fast, we should be up towards the front, no way. His anxiety was at the highest level possible. So the gun goes off, it was like having a moon shadow following me. It took 3 miles to catch Sylvie and Dianamal, working our way thru the crowd. Long story short, we ran a 1:31 starting at the very back of the pack. You would think this would have solved his anxiety of race day. Not so, read on.
St. George Marathon - same year, Bruce was an animal at training and loved hard runs. We had planned on breaking 3:10 all summer, we were ready. We get to the starting line at St. George, Broozer decides to run with Sylvie and Dianamal after getting ready for a sub 3:10, go figure. I ran a 3:08 and Bruce could have been right with me. The anxiety of hanging it all on the line, he just could not handle it. It gets worse for Broozer.
Provo Half Marathon the next year - Great training summer for Broozer, no show after signing up for the Haf. What the heck, he never gave a good reason. I know the reason was the anxiety.
St. George Marathon, same year -Great training summer for Broozer, ready again to give that 3:10 a shot. Broozer calls me friday night at the St.George hotel. I am not coming, I am sick to my stomach. Go figure, I know it is the anxiety of race day again.
Milk Carton - Have You Seen Me - This next running short may be deemed mean and not too funny. It may have seemed funny to me and dianamal at the time. I not sure Broozer ever thought it was funny. Broozer was a practical joker, had pulled many stunts on me and dianamal. We decided it was time to get even and maybe break his race day fear. Dianamal took a picture of Bruce, put a caption under the picture "Have You Seem Me" Missing Runner. We made several dozen copies of the poster. We knew that we were running a 10 miler at lunch and knew Broozer's favorite route. We drove out on the course and put the poster on every car windsheild wiper and every telephone pole for the entire 10 miles.
Well, we head out on run, it wasn't a quarter of a mile that Bruce seen the first poster on a wind sheild, we laughed and ran on. Bruce seemed to be a good sport about the prank. We hit the first turn, another poster, less of a chuckle from Broozer. We ran on, another block in front of a restaruant, a gentleman was looking at the poster and was looking at Bruce running right at him, the look on his face was priceless as he recognized Bruce as the picutre on the poster. The man said nothing, he was in shock. We ran on and on. The gentle chuckle of Bruce quickly turned into a scowl as we passed poster after poster. I guess we over done it.
Ending - we ran a couple more years with Broozer, no races, he ultimately moved on to a better job and quit running for cycling. We kept in touch for a few years.
Lesson Learned: Racing is not for everyone, but, the joy of running for the sake of running can be felt by all. .
Stay Kool, B of BS Rools out | 