Why Race?
On Labor Day I was in a funk, trying to explain to June why I was generally in a bad mood. I explained that I ran a race earlier that day and it didn’t go well.
“So why did you run it?”
“Because I’m on a team and we’re supposed to run three races.”
The why questions kept coming, and I found myself stuck on how to answer them. Kids! They just don’t understand this whole concept of paying money to run on an empty street to have the experience of pushing yourself, and to have your finish time recorded for ALL OF POSTERITY! Also you get a shirt and a hot dog! WHAT DO YOU MEAN WHY?!
But really I was annoyed that I had run the race at all, because I had a personal worst time and also did not enjoy any part of it (okay, the first mile was good and also way too fast, and I liked the hot dog). Then I was annoyed with myself for being disappointed about something I chose to do.
So why race? My why lately is that, yes, I joined a running team. It’s really just a loose group of people I run intervals with on Thursday mornings (summers only), plus some others, and the main reason I joined the team is to get a discount at a running store! Then I found out we’re expected to run three races from a specified list every year?
There’s good and bad with this. It’s made racing much less of a big deal, which can lessen any pressure I put on myself. The pressure comes right back though, because some of these races are full of nutso former college track athletes and suddenly a 25 minute 5K (good for me!) is quite slow among the field. I’ve run a mile race in the middle of July at NOON with these freaks. I hated it but the shirt is really cute. Still. Never again.
So yes, I’ve been racing more because I joined a team but those are not the ONLY races I’ve been doing, what gives? WHY DO WE RACE? Reasons, some of which are true to me:
Peer pressure (laughing at someone saying that they were always warned about being pressured to do drugs in high school but no one brought up the pressure to do a half marathon with your friends in your 30s)
Swag / Free stuff (I’m a hard no on most of this, but people love merch)
Setting goal and achieving it, whether it’s doing X distance or finishing below Y time.
Running tourism? Scenery? I was once against this (why ruin a vacation with a RACE?) but now that I’m old(er) I’m more into the idea. Running a half marathon in the mountains of Colorado wasn’t totally fun, but it was beautiful.
Getting your fast times on record (downfall: you might also get your slow times on record)
The rush/pull of the crowd. The vibes.
Which brings me to why I’m writing this now - it’s Twin Cities Marathon weekend! My relationship with racing has changed a lot in the past five years, and marathon weekend is part of what brought me back. I went on a run during the race in 2021, and cheering people on just made me want to be out there again, doing that. And so I was there in 2022 doing the 10 Mile, having not trained enough. I pushed myself to hit some arbitrary goal I had set for myself without putting in the work, and I did it, and felt like I had run a whole ass marathon afterward. I was in pain for a couple of days.
Since then I’ve adopted a metric for measuring how a race went - a mix of how it felt in my body and my finish time, with some special sauce thrown in to pull the overall score up or down (this comes down to weather, vibes, logistics). The 10 Mile has one of my favorite race starts locally - arriving in downtown Minneapolis in the dark of the morning, then starting the race as the sun rises over the Mississippi (+15). But once the sun is up it’s a bunch of hills and I don’t love the rest of the course (-12)! The people are good (+3). The finish line is too crowded (-4). Then I can factor in my time and how I felt. I’ve had mixed results at the 10 mile, and decided to take a break this year.
Obviously the best races are the ones where I feel good and go fast, usually when I have no goal except my secret goal. (My secret goal is always to do better, an impossible feat.) I started the racing season this year with the Get In Gear 10K. The weather was perfectly cool, I surprised myself with my time, and I felt good. My other races (a 5K, a 10 mile, a couple of triathlons, and no let’s not add up how much money I spent on races) and then the Labor Day race.
The Victory 10K. I had done it once and did really well so I was hoping for a repeat of that until I saw the forecast - warm and humid (-9). I signed up on race day which is a dumb thing to do (-10). Felt good in the first mile and clocked in under 8 minutes (+8). But that killed me for the next 5 miles (-13). My Disney princess band-aids fell off while I was running (-2). A bunch of my running teammates passed me and I could not keep up. (-11) My finish time was my worst…ever (-58). (Okay fine I did a slower 10k at the end of an Olympic triathlon but I was planning for that!) Got a hot dog (+12). Was in a funk because all of this for way too long (-9). Took a nap and chilled out (+20). Then my coach sent me this picture and all was okay again (+75).
See you at the next one? And happy marathon weekend to all who celebrate!