Pay it forward. . .

Sometimes injuries happen, sometimes you get a little knocked down. Those issues come and go but the timing usually sucks. I'm nursing my own nagging injury, the triathlon was two weeks ago today, my foot feels better so I decided to give it a try, unfortunately it was only good enough to get me from my normal starting spot to the next driveway. It sucks, not because I have a race I'm preparing for, but because I was preparing for someone else's race.

If you're new or unfamiliar with marathons and half marathons, there's an unheralded group that you may not know even existed. Pacers. There are people who instead of signing up for races for their own accomplishment they choose to be responsible for others', which to me means more. Pacers have one job, to cross the finish the line at an assigned time. People volunteer for these positions, their responsibility is finishing the race at the exact time they signed up for. Why do pacers exists? So other runners can just concentrate on running and not worry about how fast or how far, just run. Some runners use pacers so they can PR, some use them to try and push themselves faster than they've ever gone, some use them because they don't know. Whatever the reason, it's the pacer's job to reward those that stay with them, that gut it out and push themselves. The pacers are quite recognizable at races normally wearing neon shirts and holding a stick that has a number on top of it. It's not just a number, it's a time, it's someone elses' goal time. There are plenty of opportunities to meet these pacers: 1. at the packet pick up at the Madison Mini Marathon, 2. before and during the race and 3. after the race. I encourage all of you to thank these pacers, you can read about them here.

My names on the list but I probably won't be there. I'm most frustrated that I won't be able to pay it forward this race. The more races I run the more I realize that I'm not thinking about me when I cross the finish line. I see my family and friends smiling, cheering, enjoying the moment. As I approach the finish line my thoughts and feelings race, emotions fill my heart and I get choked up. The race was a time to reflect and think, think about the things I thought about hundreds of times on training runs, but those thoughts meant more during the race. It was my intention to give that opportunity to someone else at the Madison Mini Marathon. But what I can be most proud of; the fact that last year I ran this race with a friend, it was his first half marathon. . . his names on the list too, he'll be there.