Here’s mine:
I don’t think I had ever run that fast before in my life. It was Christmastime and all the runners were given jingle bells. At the time, I was still a beginner and I was used to stopping frequently throughout my runs. So I’m jogging, lots of people passing me, I’m also passing others. It’s pretty cool. Then a kid passes me. Then another. And some more.
That’s cool too, I expected that. There are bound to be elementary school children faster than I am. What I didn’t anticipate was how many would keep pace with me.
I was tired and wanted to stop running. Then I looked down to find myself adrift in a sea of babies. I remember kids falling during laps in my formative years. Stampedes! Pile-ups! Only disaster could follow my stopping. They’d trample me, they’d trip, and we’d all fall down. Other races would have to avoid a tumbleweed made of a 4th grade classroom and what they assumed was the teacher, all going jingle-jingle-jingle. I dare not trust the coordination of myself and these cookie-fueled chaos factories. I had to keep running!
Anyway, eventually they split away from me and the rest of the race is a blurry lung-burn-y memory. I got a cookie and a finisher though.
So, what’s your 1st race story?
I think I probably ran consistently for at least 3 years before signing up for a race ever occured to me, haha. I think I eventually signed up for a Thanksgiving 10k, and while I was very comfortable with the distance, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing in terms of race day logistics. I was home from college at the time and I had forgotten my running shorts so I ended up running in my brother’s sweatpants which were A) pants and B) much too large for me. Additionally, I had not put together that I wouldn’t have a place to store anything and had brought a drawstring bag with me from the car so I ran the whole race with that bouncing around behind me, pants billowing in the wind 😂