Racing

Yesterday I talked about how much fun exercise in general can be. Today I'm advocating for the potential fun competing in a race holds. Now I know some of you are going to say, "I totally sucked at sports all through school. There's no way in hell I'm going to start competing in anything now." Before you completely write this off keep an open mind and read this article and then my take on it. If you still aren't convinced then I guess you're one less person I have to worry about beating in a race!

My take on Su Reid-St. John's 5 reasons to do a race:
1. It gives you a goal: I've always been a goal oriented person. I need something to strive for and accomplish in order to feel like a complete person. Luckily my parents recognized that at an early age and signed me up for little kid track, which turned into soccer and basketball and softball and a million other athletic competitions, not to mention academic competitions. For those of you who aren't naturally this way, signing up and paying those god awful fees to run a probably longer than you've ever run distance should be enough to get you going. It also makes that weight loss/getting into better shape goal more realistic because as Ms. Reid-St. John stated, you need to be at a certain level of physical shape in order to be competitive.

2. It's an excuse to take time for yourself: When I trained for my first marathon it was my last semester of college complete with 21 course units, a senior honors project, applying for real jobs, substitute teaching, and trying to spend as much time with friends I would soon be parting. I was busy enough without tossing 18 mile runs (at one time) into the mix. However, I found that taking that time for myself was the best thing I could have done to cut down on the stress from that semester. And since then I've run a number of marathons while carrying on my still ever busy life and it's only made it easier. There's something meditative about performing the same physical action over and over (once you get past the barely able to breathe or move feeling), not to mention getting out into nature.

3. It allows for built-in girl time: Or guy time. Or more generally friend time. If you're training with others (as I often do) it gives you a significant amount of uninterrupted time to bond. Having to occupy significant amounts of time that can often become quite challenging at times promotes deeper conversations and necessitates encouragement. I'm currently training with the bf for the San Francisco marathon (his first) and it's probably done as much to strengthen our relationship as anything else.

4. It's an excellent way to see the country (or the world): I've mostly ran races in my own backyard but I've never been to San Francisco so I've become really excited about exploring such a neat city in a different way.

5. You come away with an awesome feeling of accomplishment: There is no way you can enter a race and not come away feeling changed. Most of my races have consisted of marathons, which for me is a much more emotional, mental and physical experience than say, a 5K but at the same time has very similar effects on finishers. You cross that line knowing you accomplished that goal you set out to do and that's the feeling that turns you into a racing addict! Los Angeles has a really cool program called Students Run LA, which trains "at risk" students in the Los Angeles area to run the LA Marathon. Now even though I run those crazy races now there's no way I would have even thought about doing it as a teenager so I can only imagine the accomplishment those amazing children must feel crossing the finish line.

And if I still haven't convinced you to run a race there are also many races designed specifically for the fun factor that combine other activities in with the race such as The Great Urban Race or http://warriordash.com/ amongst many others.


Crossing the finish line of my first LA Marathon