A Runner Remembers

With 24 hours to go to the start of my fourth Police Half Marathon, I reminisce about the previous three! Each one has a funny story that stands out for me.

The first one, my two good running friends and I stood at the start line together with a plan to meet at the end because my pace was a bit quicker than theirs. The race happened, I crossed the finish line only to see them standing there. I did not remember my two good friends passing me, I was a bit delirious and was trying to process what I saw...both standing there with gauze patches on their knees, elbows and hands. One tripped on the train tracks at the 5km to 7km distance, knocking the other one down and those on their tails falling on top of them. Those folks got up, carried on while my two friends were treated by the EMS who were positioned at that mile marker. EMS suggested they call it a day and head home. It’s funny now but wasn’t then!

The second one, I ran on my own and the route was the same as the first one. I over hear conversations from the folks on my tail that leads me to believe it is a pace bunny leading a pack of newbies. He’s passing along advice on pace, water drinking, walk breaks etc. As we approach the 5km to 7km distance, I hear the bunny give a piece of very important information. He explains there are train tracks ahead, be careful with your footing because last year two girls tripped and those on their tails fell on top of them. I picked up the pace a bit to get away from those around me and high stepped over the tracks. I smiled and chuckled to myself because I knew he was talking about my two good running friends. My friends had a good laugh when I shared this story with them!

The third one, I did some of my long training runs with a Running Room group. One fellow in the group had an issue with me, not sure what it was, but was rude to me and always had a not so nice comment to pass along even when I would see him in my office building. He had his n_ts in a knot over something! On race day, our pace was similar but our 10 and 1s didn’t jive so there was lots of passing each other. His effort seemed more in having a comment to pass along to me then on his race. I ignored him and stayed focus at the task at hand. With a couple of kms to go, I picked up the pace, I had stored energy to spend. I did not see him anymore. Just before the finish line, I hear heavy quick foot steps coming behind me, it’s him and he crosses the finish line right in front of me, comes to an abrupt stop, leans over and losses his cookies. I have to jump to the side or I would topple on top of him, I look at him and laugh! To this day, there are no more comments from him when I see him in my building, in fact, he can’t even look at me! I still laugh at him!

The fourth one........

I wonder what tomorrow’s story will be?