My roommate once told me (in a complimentary fashion, I hope), that I am a "lone wolf". She has a point—I'm not exactly a prolific joiner. I love my close friends, but I'm not much for networking, and I have also been informed that my Neutral Bitch Face (NBF - a condition in which one's natural, neutral expression looks unwelcoming and superior, despite their feelings to the contrary) is detrimental to my first impressions.
Sometimes, however, when I know it would be good for me, I force myself into joiner-ish situations. Herein lies the reason for this blog's creation; I have signed myself up for the Nike Women's Half Marathon in San Francisco, with a fundraising group called Team In Training. I did this for a lot of reasons.
One: I would like to run the New York City Marathon. I don't know when, I don't quite know how, but I would like to do it before I die. And I think this is another step in that direction.
Two: I needed a 'thing'. I've been feeling pretty stagnant lately, and I needed something that I was working on, a goal to move towards. Blame my father, he had me writing a list of about 20 goals/resolutions down every New Year's Eve when I was a kid - and I loved it.
Three; helping others. My goal is to raise $3,500 for Leukemia and Lymphoma research before the half marathon. This seems somewhat crazy at the moment, but I'm told that other participants achieve that and more every season, so I'm going to do my best to live up to my promise. (If you want to help out, go here.)
Four: the travel. I have always wanted to go to San Francisco, and I'll be the first to admit to my travel addiction; I never say no to another trip.
Now to return to my lone wolf-ness - yesterday morning I got up at 6:30 (what have I done?) to go for our first group training run, up at Yonge and Eg. I bravely passed by the intoxicating scent of Cinnabon (how does anyone who uses that station face it on a daily basis?), I wore my special team t-shirt, I even clapped and quietly "woohoo-ed" (I am so not a woo girl...) when we were supposed to be team spirity. But then one of our coaches announced his no headphones policy. I had a minor panic attack. What do you mean no headphones?? No music? No motivational Dragonette lighting a fire in my new shoes? But why?
The reasons were not ones of training, but of socializing. To meet new people and talk while we ran. I am only mildly ashamed to say that this filled me with an irrational anger. Why would I want to do that? How can you breathe properly while you're talking?
As much as I am a lone wolf, I am also generally a rule follower. So I did it. I crammed my iPod (I'm so sorry, little Pheidippides) into the tiny back pocket of my stretchy pants, and proceeded to run the longest and least fun 5K of my life. I did run alongside some new people, though I can't say I did much talking.
One of the trainers promised me afterward that training with other people would inevitably speed up my race time. I'm not exactly convinced yet, but I'll keep you posted as I test out the pack life.
The anti-networking gene obviously didn't skip you. She'll kill me, but one of your aunties has the NBF, as you know, and I envy her because it circumvents so many awkward social encounters. (This is compared with the Custard Pie Face, which seems to attract damaged and homeless entities the universe over.) I can understand that forcing yourself to brave it (and the Cinnabons) may improve your time by making you compete. As I envy the NBF, I also envy your determination and focus to even attempt to do this, so I'll be watching and clapping!
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