Mountain or Molehill?

Two nights ago I decided to run the course for the 5K I am running tonight. It was mainly for my girlfriend who has never run a race. I thought it would be good for her to get a feel for the course so it would not be as daunting. The whole time leading up to the run I was full of anxiety; my memory of the course was less than favorable. I remembered the course as literally all up hill. For weeks I have told many people that this was the worst course ever, that it was all up hill and that I did not know why I said I would do the race. But…I had told my friend I would do it.

Tuesday night with much anxiety and a storm heading our way, Mark and I climbed into my girlfriend’s car and she drove us to the starting point of the race. I had all these negative thoughts pounding in my head and I just let them swirl around in there like a cesspool. I was determined to be miserable, I “knew” what I was up against and planned to do it anyway because I promised my friend but I was definitely not happy about it.

Once we got going I felt pretty good. Even though it was 85 degrees, the storm clouds came in handy and kept the hot sun off of our backs. It was a good strong pace as we turned down one dirt road after another. Finally after a few minutes of anticipation the first hill was in my sight and that’s when I realized that this hill had been a mountain in my memory. I had built this hill up so high that I was certain I would fail or embarrass myself and there it was…just a hill, a blip on my running screen. The next hill was a long steep hill that was just as I had remembered, but this time I was ready for it I had been running hills near my home and with a little extra huffing and puffing (picture a blowfish) I made it up to the top.  From there it was smooth sailing.

There is still the prerace anxiety. Things like will it be too hot or will a ten year old run by me (like last time) or even, am I ready? All the things that my mind dishes up today I am pretty sure I can fight off now because I made it to the top of the mountain and it turned out to be a molehill in the end. I now know that this is not the toughest course ever and I am also very glad I told my girlfriend I would run.