The past two Octobers I participated in the Baltimore Running Festival. Both years I did the half-marathon (13.1 miles) event. I didn’t train either year, the first because I had an injury and the second year because I didn’t consider it a priority in my schedule (and I didn’t figure I needed to – because all I intended to do was finish).
The first year, my hamstrings got so tight on mile 11 that I had to walk for a while and finished the final 2 miles alternately running and walking. Last year, I decided that I could run smarter and figured my legs wouldn’t fall off if I kept at it slowly. I finished without having to walk, but both legs were painfully tight long before the finish line. I announced in my blog (10/13/09) that I was done with just participating and staggering across the finish line! I was either going to train or stay home and watch the whole thing on television this year.
Then somebody said why don’t you just do the 5k (3.1 miles) with some of the guys. That wouldn’t be too taxing, I could hang with a bunch of them and still be part of the whole special event. I liked that idea and mulled it over the past 10 months. But I had made it pretty clear, I was not interested in running the half – and nobody even asked or tried to talk me into it this year!
Then I started to feel a little bit left out. Over 100 of the men in our Spiritual Recovery Program will be manning different stations during the races – in fact, pretty much everybody from the Mission is going to be there. I didn’t actually know anybody who was going to run the 5k and the big event here at our place is still the half marathon.
You know…I can’t really remember just how painful my hamstrings got last year. And I have been thinking about last year’s run – I felt so good early in the race last year that I took off up a hill in mile 3 and I am pretty sure that helped contribute to my later hammy problems. If I just took it easy going up that hill next time, I might not tighten up like that again.
Well…this last week, I signed up to participate in the half marathon again. I just couldn’t help myself. I don’t have a chemical addiction background, but it is pretty clear that I do have issues! So see you at the Baltimore Running Festival.
Sincerely needing serious help,
Pastor Gary Byers
Spiritual Life Director