Friends.

This sign makes me get teary. I am a overly emotional person since having children. I admit it.

My husband and kids could not come to the Broad Street run last year, I went with my best friend and her husband. I remember blogging the night before, all twisted up with anxiety, worried that I would get to the start line and have strangers pointing at me yelling "YOU ARE NOT A RUNNER YOU WEIRDO WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE YOU IMPOSTOR?!". I felt like a fish out of water, a moron for even thinking that I could tackle such an endeavor. I called Jeannie roughly eleventy times in the days before. "What do I wear?" "Do I bring water?", "What if I die?". Jeannie, being her wonderful self, gave me lots of pointers. Basics like "Drink lots of water before hand, but not too close to the race or you will have to go the bathroom", "eat breakfast" "use glide, or non chafing clothes"(I didn't know what chafing was, other than a giant meat board). "People will start falling over near the finish, don't trip on them) (people passed out at the exact point~ the ramp near the naval yard~as I was told they would. I dodged them, thanks to the forewarning.). Jeannie is awesome.

We got to the general area of the race, parked, took the subway, and spent a good 45 minutes in the port a potty line. The port a potty line had like 300 port a potties, all in a row. This is the stuff that happens when running alongside 30,000 other people. It was so much fun, I made lots of new friends in the line.....but mostly I just stood around with my mouth hanging open awed that this many other people ran. I could not get over the bodies ~ there were, like super runner people there, all bony skinny and decked out in clothes and gear I didn't even know existed. There were also a ton of average, regular looking people, like me, and even a lot of people who one might not initially pick out as "runners". This is the great thing about running (and golf).....you don't race one another. You race yourself. And ANYONE can do it! Anyone!

I was nervous at the start. Like, nervous that I would not even finish, that I would pull some weird anti runner freak out karate move which would expose me as the newby fraud I was. Thank God for Jeannie. We just ran. We talked. We laughed, at me. At one point I thought I was in Tribeca (which is in NYC).....I am so not a city person, even including the city that I live in a suburb of. When I say I was high, I mean it. I was running, and laughing, and fist bumping the spectators, and dancing, and generally exposing myself as the totally not cool person that I am. I did it gleefully. I was achieving a goal and having FUN! Not dying.

There was one thing, however, that killed me. I can't remember exactly why Nate could not bring the kids.......it may have had something to do with the crowd and there being three of them under four. Can't remember. But as I ran, there was one thing that consistently made me tear up ~ and it was the little girls, and it was their signs. There was at least a hundred little girls lining the course bearing signs that said "GO MOMMY!" or the like. Little 3 or 4 year olds standing with their Daddies or Mommies proudly lofting signs bearing statements like "RUN LIKE A MOTHER", or "YOU CAN DO IT MAMA!". Every time I caught my breath. These kids! These Dads! These MOMS! Out there on a random morning doing something hard, for fun. I had no idea of the impact that these kids would have on me. I didn't really realize that in dedicating my run to Jake, I was dedicating my run to every kid out there, to every Mom who wanted to do something big. Every kid became my kid. Every kid offering a high five, or a gleeful smile, was my kid. And they were all on my team.

While running is a solo event, while one only runs to finish, or to beat themselves......we are all out there together. It's a herd. A herd of like minded people, who all chose to show up on the same day, for the same purpose. There is a ton of solidarity.

The best thing about running is the ability to share it with a friend, or a kid, or a spouse. Jake is my running partner as I push him. My husband has started running races with me. My 4 and 3 year olds are already talking about this years mud run. They wear my finisher medals and pretend to race. They know that Mom does not race to win, but because she loves it. In this world of competitive super suck parents.....the message that sport can be for fun, rather than for WINNING, is huge, to me. I have met a ton of new friends, who run. Anyone can do it! I ran in the afternoon today. Afternoons are not my strong suit, my energy is low. Knowing that I was meeting Kate at the gym this afternoon got me there. Accountability is huge. Kate was already running when I got there. I set my pace (6.3, this afternoon) and got going. We talked, like girls do, forever. By the time she had to go order pizza for her four kids 7 and under, I was at 6 miles. I plugged in, sped up, zoned out, and got another 4 in. It was easy. Not easy because of what I was doing, but because of who I was doing it with. Friends will keep you going. Friends will get you there. If you don't have friends who run, and you want to run, find some. Post on message boards. Find them at your gym. Enlist your spouse. Pick a friend who wants to start running, and become a team. Push your kid. There is nothing like talking away the miles, or seeing smiling faces encouraging you, to make it possible. Start logging your miles on line, or keeping them on your phone or watch. If what you are doing is FUN, you will keep doing it. If what you are doing is torture, you will quit. If you want to run, find your herd. If you find them, you will love it. Promise.