A lot of people don't know this, but I'm really interested in running. Not because I'm good at it, or because I enjoy it, but because I used to be fat.
Not Star-Jones fat or Vincent D'Onofrio-in-"Full-Metal-Jacket" fat, but chunky. When you're 6-foot-4, you can hide 40 pounds here or there, an extra package around a massive Christmas tree, but when you're 5-foot-6, 40 pounds is the difference between "trim" and "SOMEONE GET A GURNEY!!"
So I started running to lose weight, and started doing races to stay motivated, and eventually took it so far as to finish a couple marathons. Slowly, mind you. Very, very slowly. My best marathon time is 3:55.19 (9.06 per mile), which is the pace most Kenyans can drag a flat-bottom boat.
I've tried to keep running, though, and last weekend I did my first race in Fresno, the 40th annual Father's Day Run in downtown. It was a 10k, and here are the results.
It should be noted that 44:17 is my PR, mostly because I'd never run a 10k before.
It also should be noted - sorry, lots of note-taking today, class - that I'm pretty sure I finished 67th instead of 68th, because Shelby Little, a cross country runner at Fresno High, was nice enough to let me pass her at the end. But then we got to talking in the chute and I think she turned in her number before I did so our places got switched.
It's fine. Looking at the results, though, it's weird to think I sprinted the last 50 yards of a 6-mile race with absolutely everything I had left; body flailing and sweating and aching. All to pass someone who appeared to be jogging casually, and who you can clearly see is in the 10- to 14-year-old age category.
The lesson here is ... I would be such a force in junior high girls cross country. As long as everyone jogged and let me pass them at the end.
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