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December 11, 2005

Insufferable

If Andy can think of a way to turn his 1st place age group award from his race this weekend into a Christmas tree topper I think he just might do that. But, he says, it's WAY too big and heavy for that kind of thing.

Neither of us is into false humility. At the same time, neither of us has any delusions that we're Olympic material. We both started pretty much solidly in the middle of the pack. In the past few years age group awards became more common for me, but they're almost never a guarantee even now, even at really small races. Age group awards for Andy are even harder to come by. What I'm trying to say is ... as cool as it isn't ... we like 'em. We appreciate them.

We're not entirely sure what to do with them, though. Since we moved into this house I've had my own office with a bookshelf that collected these awards and all of my finishers medals and the like. Now that office will become a nursery, and something must be done with all that stuff. I don't think I want to throw it away. Slowly but surely I've been moving it into Andy's office, discreetly shoving aside Aggie paraphernalia and random shot glasses to make room for the little (and not-so-little) glass, plastic, and limestone reminders of some of the little triumphs I've had over the years. He's been accommodating, although there have been a few grumbles. It's moderately (?) tacky, I'm aware (but c'mon ... not as bad as the shot glasses!), but it's hard to let go.

Yesterday Andy picked up another piece of hardware at his first 50K race; a trail race in the San Jacinto National Forest north of Houston. We have heard great things about the race for years and have had it on our "to do" list of races, but marathon goal races have gotten in the way each year. In fact, this year he had intended to race Dallas this weekend until he realized a few weekends ago he wasn't interested in racing a marathon on his own in a city where he has no real ties. Now we realize what a smart choice that was. He was still worried about running with no company at this race, but the whole atmosphere of the race was so much more relaxed and supportive and beautiful than an urban marathon would be.

The course is broken down into three segments - a 6-mile out-and-back followed by two 12.5-mile loops. So Matty and I got to see him on three separate occasions, making spectating very easy and interesting. He seemed to be running well each time, although he said in the past 3-4 miles he was experiencing all of the ups and downs of a regular marathon (despite the beauty of the course he was *definitely* ready to have it over with by then.) He also developed some serious soreness in his quads.

The most remarkable part of this race is the food. Full cowboy breakfast for everyone (spectators are not harassed) and then full cowboy dinner afterward. We missed out on breakfast - biscuits, gravy, pancakes and more - but did take full advantage of dinner afterward: sausage, chicken fried steak with gravy, mac-n-cheese, hamburgers, fried pickles, jalapenos and cheese ... and more.

After dinner we wandered over to check out the results; Andy really only had an outside hope of getting an age-group award, so winning his age group was a really nice surprise. To say the least. The award is a hand-crafted bronze horse statue on a marble base - it's a great-looking award. And he knows it. He's taken every possible opportunity to work "his horse" into our conversations over the past 24 hours or so (as in, when he woke up this morning he looked at it on the desk near the bed and said "oh it wasn't a dream. I really did win that horse.") No amount of eye-rolling can convince him he's totally obnoxious.

I want one.

Posted by jenandmats at December 11, 2005 5:54 PM

Comments

GOOD FOR YOU!!! IT'S OKAY TO WANT TO KICK SOME BUTT AND BE THE BEST!!!!!

And if you are good, and run hard, someday you too can have a horse and be obnoxious. :)

Love this post!

Posted by: Audrey at December 12, 2005 12:37 AM

I have to say that I wasn't overly impressed - if you look hard enough, people of Andy's ability can win their age group somewhere - until you mentioned that it was a 50K. Very impressive!

Besides, it can't have been easy living in your shadow all of these years. He's just gloating because it's his one chance to show you up :-)

Posted by: Alison at December 12, 2005 8:01 AM

Indeed, it was a rare but cherished event to let Jen walk in my shoes for Once! I typically finish around 28th place in my age group in Austin races, so afterwards, I walk around the post-race festivities carrying Jen's award so she can get dressed or deal with whatever she needs her hands for. This scenario has been replayed so many times that it was nice to trade places... just once!

Posted by: Andy at December 12, 2005 8:15 AM