Runner's Dilemma #20 — My First Marathon Race
Runner's Log | Runner's Dilemma #20
My First Marathon Race
"Why would I need to go all the way to a marathon race? I can just run on my own."
I had zero intention of going, but the club president kept pushing, so I ended up at my first marathon race.
Right up until the day itself, this is what I kept thinking:
"If I'd just changed clothes and gone out my front door, I'd already be back by now..."
Once I got there, things got surprisingly busy.
Had to find a bathroom. Had to warm up.
We parked far away, and the closer we got to the race site,
I'd never seen this many runners gathered in one place before. It was genuinely strange to take in.
Bright, colorful gear. Athletic tape applied like the pros. Runners who just looked fast.
My worn-in clothes, my worn-in shoes, my beat-up hip pack. I felt painfully ordinary standing there, and it got to me.
While I was standing there, nervous, a couple of club seniors who'd run well over 100 full marathons came over and said:
But it's all the same underneath.
Just run your own pace.
Don't get nervous and go out too hot at the start."
I stood at the start line, nervous for a long time.
Then the countdown finally began, and I started running, swallowed up in the crowd.
As the crowd gradually thinned out, the scenery slowly started coming into view.
A warm-looking sky overhead, scattered with clouds.
Runners in bright gear passing me by, one after another.
Being in the middle of it, I suddenly felt like I was back at some college festival, that same nervous excitement.
I don't quite know how to put it...
Not a husband, not a dad, at home.
Just me.
"When was the last time I thought about only myself, like this?"
That was my first marathon.
