Visualize THAT.

SO, the day finallyyy arrived for me to run my first ever road race this Sunday at the Tufts 10K around Boston's Backbay.  Although I've been running for many years, I've always kept it as a personal hobby and fitness strategy and never allowed it to become anything that would require me to challenge myself to any real extent. But I finally decided to just get over it and try a road race because there is always that chance you just might surprise yourself.  and boy, did I ever....

Tom and I got there early enough for me to get out all of my crazy, ridiculous negative thinking about all the things that could go wrong...for someone who has been running the race distance once a week for the last three weeks, as I have, you wouldn't really think too much could go wrong...but I could think of lots of things.  For example, what if I fell down and basically created a pig pile of women or what if I suddenly couldn't run 6 miles despite having done the exact route six days earlier, or what if...and on and on...

Tom was a fantastic sport and just continued to listen (and laugh) at all of the potential catastrophies I'd imagined in my near future.  Then he calmly suggested that I try "positive visualization" and actually imagined myself finishing and feeling like a rockstar and getting the celebratory beer after that we had planned...It sounded like a much better option.

So off I went, thinking positively and starting the run...

And amazingly, or as is common for many but contradictory to my expectations, I felt great and was shocked when I found I had already passed the 3-mile marker.  Although frustrated at times at the extreme congestion of having so many thousands of runners, it was totally stimulating and there was a lot of positive vibe, so seemingly Tom's positive-thinking idea was paying off and before I knew it I was crossing the Mass Ave bridge and heading toward the last two miles.

Feeling slightly caught off-guard by how painless it was feeling thus far, I started stepping up my pace significantly and sure enough, I was rounding the corner of the commons and the finish line was in sight. 6-mile marker was passed and I only had .4 miles left til if was official.  And that's when the baddd feeling started.  You know that feeling when you feel like you're growing to throw up? Yeah, that one. But the thing is that I was starting to think I might actually be pulling a really good personal time and even when you feeeeel like you're going to puke, you never really do (if you're me) so I figured I'd just "run through it" as they say.  Positive visualization, i kept thinking.  But the feeling got worse and with approximately ONE minute left til my feet crossed the line and with the most spectators (thousands) than any other spot on the course because it was the finish line, I literally started puking. But I couldn't stop running. Or believing what was happening. So once I realized that I was actually throwing up the few sips of water I'd grabbed along the way on myself AS I crossed the finish line. 

RIDICULOUS. I mean, how does that happen?! I've never puked from running in my life and I've run distances much longer than 6.4miles. Of ALL the negative thinking I had before the race, never in a MILLION years did I think that I would throw up in front of thousands of people and cameras.  The silver lining, you ask? Because it must be hard to imagine that there was one. BUT I did finish the race and I beat my personal record time finishing in exactly one hour (and 11 seconds). Must have been booking those last two miles that put me over the edge, but I freaking puked all the way across the finish line and if THAT isn't badass, I don't know what is.  

Tom actually just missed the big show ending because he wasn't expecting me to cross for another like 7 or 8 minutes as I had prepped him for my usual timing.  Of course I can't say I'm sorry he missed it. But even though I'm the GROSSEST participant in yesterdays race, I was smiling for the rest of the day and happy to find that, we can, despite ourseleves, make new personal records, exceed our own expectations and laugh in the face of public humiliation. 

Totally worth it. And who doesn't love a good story?

Imagine how boring a post this would have been if I had just run the race, end of story.

Pshh. No way, Hosea.

I ran. I puked.

And I'm still laughing.

The End.