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December 01, 2005
Thanksgiving Day 5K Line-Up
The night before Thanksgiving, my husband, brother-in-law, four siblings, and I sat around my parents' kitchen table debating how the next day's race would go. Basically, we were all trading alibis--to the amusement of my parents. Everyone was confident about being able to run--without stopping--for an entire 5K; we were all more concerned about our respective paces...and the order in which we would finish.
Here were the horses:
My brother, F. (age 15): Ran XC this fall, but had only run once since his season ended in mid-October. According to him, this one run "practically killed" him. However, he is 15--youth and flexibility are certainly on his side. He has yet to come anywhere close to his potential as a runner. It could be that sibling and in-law rivalry will light a fire under him and produce an inspired performance.
My sister, MA (age 18): My only sister with any eye-hand coordination and agility, MA generally prefers contact sports and is a talented lacrosse player. This fall, she played on her college's club team. She ran a few times a week, 2-3 miles at a time, in the month or so leading up to Thanksgiving. She seemed torn about her goals for this race--she's a competitive person, so she couldn't "just run" it, but she also didn't want it to hurt like hell.
My sister, K. (age 23): K. ran XC and track in high school, but is the first to admit that she participated mainly for social reasons. However, last year during her first year of grad school, she went on a kind of self-care health kick and started running again. She probably had the most consistent training and commitment to running of all my siblings over the past year. But she hadn't run for a few weeks at this point and denied any feelings of competitive drive for this race. She just wanted to have fun and recruited my other sisters to jog and chat with her.
My sister, M. (age 26): M. also ran XC and track in high school and experienced considerable success in our league in the 400m. outdoors and the 600m. indoors. She had been running only a few weeks, having switched from the elliptical at the gym to the treadmill once she and her husband had decided to race. She had also quit smoking 12 days before. Still, I felt that M., having been a 400m. runner in the past, was acquainted with a kind of pain and discomfort some will just never know. If she really decided to just go for it, she could probably put up with a lot more discomfort than others in our little group.
My brother-in-law, N. (married to M., age 27): A talented high school runner, N. ran one year (I think) of college before being sidelined by stress fractures and burn-out. In high school, he ran a 4:30-something mile as a senior, I believe. But he'd only run 3-4 days a week for a month or so and had only quit smoking for a week and a half. He felt very strongly that the rest of us should completely discount his earlier accomplishments as anomalies and give greater consideration to the weight he'd gained and the damage he'd done to his respiratory system since he was 17. He predicted that he'd run 30 minutes for the distance. However, he qualified this prediction with the assertion that he would run hard, "kill [himself]" if he had to.
My husband, A. (age 28): With me, A. had clearly done the most training leading up to the race. Still, like me, A. also had the most aches and pains associated with said preparation (A.'s ankle, my hip and quad). At first, he was willing to cede rank to N.'s genetics and previous accomplishments and F.'s season of training and knowledge of the course. But he is the most competitive person on the planet and was immediately comforted by N.'s and F.'s lack of confidence. Instead of 4th or 5th place in the family ranking, 2nd or 3rd began to look possible to him. And of course, he too was determined to "leave it all on the course."
Me (age 27): OK, so you all know something about my training and my hip soreness, etc. My hip was feeling better--I ran an easy 3 miles that day and was confident that I could attempt to actually race the next day. Still, it wasn't the all-out, do-or-die race situation I had hoped for when I signed up (I had hoped to be shooting for breaking 20:00--oh well!). So I had modified my goal to breaking 21:00 and I was definitely the only one of my family to care about where I placed in the field as a whole. Some decent local women have been known to show up at this thing, so I didn't think that I could contend for the win, but I also knew that this could potentially be my last race before the snow (if you don't count Fresh Pond runs) and I wanted to make it a good one.
So there you go--all the ingredients for an athletic family drama. What factors would aid in triumph--genetics? training? weather? sheer mental will and fortitude? For whom?
Am I dragging this out or what? =)
Posted by Megan at December 1, 2005 06:36 PM
Comments
:) I am following the drama as it SLOWLY unfolds!!!!!!! Isn't it amazing how long the "event" can be dragged out in real life too though? The training, before the race, all day of the race as people plan and then disect, reporting results back to non-participatory family members, when any pictures come back...It's kind of nice to give the fam something to do together. Anyway, I am waiting to see how it turned out!!
Posted by: Audrey at December 2, 2005 07:43 AM
Am I going to have to look at the results of every Turkey Trot on the east coast to see how this turned out?! Even that wouldn't work, because I don't know everyone's real name. I guess I'll just have to be patient :-)
Posted by: Alison at December 2, 2005 09:10 AM