Sunday Night with John: A guy with a stroller and a 14 year old girl

The first two miles went as planned. I ran them in under 14 minutes, starting off on a good pace and focusing on reaching my goal. I wanted to run 13.1 miles in under 1 hour and 44 minutes. Running it that amount of time would mean I averaged less than 8 minutes a mile the entire time. All the training I did made me feel like it was a goal well within reach on this chilly Iowa City Morning.

As they called out times as I ran past the two-mile marker, a guy on my left passes me pushing a stroller, a freaking stroller.  Another runner close to me said, "come on that’s not cool passing me with that." The guy with a stroller cracked a joke about the stroller having a motor in it. As he pulled away from me, I picked up my pace, saying to myself I wasn’t going to let a guy pushing a stroller pull away from this early in the race.

I ran the next ¾ of a mile with the stroller guy pacing me. We approached the turn for the half marathon runner and the 5k runners. Stroller guy made his way toward the 5k route.  My anger toward my self subsided as I realized stroller guy was running a completely different race than I was. I turned left and continued my trip to 13.1 miles. 

I refocused on my goal and with every mile marker I would do the math in my head to make sure I was under 8 minutes a mile. Mile marker 5, 7, 8, and 9 all passed and I was running what could be my personal best 13.1-mile time. I was very happy with my energy level and focus. With four miles to go I allowed myself to flirt with a possible time of 1 hour and 39 minutes, which was a pipe dream this morning.

As I’m passing mile marker ten and the time is shouted out, I know my goal is in hand. it’s just a matter of what time I can squeeze out of my body and mind today. Just passed the marker, a young girl no older than 14 goes flying by me. This time I don’t have anger like I did toward the guy in the stroller. I’m just in utter amazement at how fast this girl is running. I have no hope of mustering up the energy to keep pace like I did with the stroller guy earlier. I just run slower and watch the girl disappear off in the distance, probably running my dreamtime of 1 hour and 39 minutes.

As I pass by mile marker 12, I hear the sweet sound of 93 minutes, meaning I’ve got 11 minutes to run my last mile to meet my goal. The stroller guy and 14-year-old girl are out of my brain. it’s just my mind and body against my mind and body. Too often we set goals only to loose sight of them comparing ourselves to others. We think we have to be like that person, or reach their milestones.  Even though I was running the same route as many other runners, I was running a completely different race. So many of us are battling with different struggles, and as we see others be successful we compare ourselves to them. The old cliché you haven’t walked a mile in my shoes comes to mind and for today, maybe it should be, you haven’t ran a mile in my shoes.

I crossed the finish line after taking a couple of seconds to high five some friends who showed up at the finish line to cheer me on. I crossed at 1 hour 41 minutes and 42 seconds, a personal best and I was completely satisfied with the run. The guy in the stroller and the young girl just become foot notes on my journey. I hope those moments that bother you when you are striving for your goals become footnotes when you find yourself on top of that goal you set for your self. 

All smiles before the race

Heading toward the finish line