I feel sorry for winners. Whoever wins the next almost billion dollar PowerBall prize has to say goodbye to everything about her life right now--job (whether she likes it or not), friends, house, kids’ school, most if not all of her family, privacy, diplomacy, normalcy. She can never complain about anything again (“What are you complaining about, you have so much money!”); she can never aspire to anything again (“If you want that so badly, just buy it!”). You have to really dislike everything about yourself and your life to want so much money that you have to change it all. Yes, you could do a lot of good with that money, but you probably wouldn’t.

The same goes for race winners--they must really hate to run to want to be done with those races so quickly.

This past weekend I ran the Shamrock Shuffle in Chicago. It was a fairly nice spring day--warmish, overcast, little wind. Great running weather. I started running this race 6 years ago on a whim. I’d never been a runner or even mildly interested in running, but other people were signing up for the race, so I got suckered in, too. What’s great about these races is the sense of solitude in the crowd. The quiet time by yourself but the company of thousands of other people enjoying the same space. And it’s a fairly long race--8k or 5 miles depending on your perspective. I usually run it in a little under an hour. The winning runner finished in about 25 minutes. I’m glad I didn’t win.

The first race I ever participated in was the Lincoln Park Pumpkins in the Park in, perhaps, 2006 or 2008. All I remember is that I was pregnant with one of my kids--it must have been 2006 or I would have made myself out as a cool Lincoln Park stroller mom since I was just walking. What I do remember about the race is that just as we were starting the walk, the elite runners were finishing their runs. I thought to myself, “Where is the fun in that?” They paid $50 to run for less than half an hour and it’s done--they didn’t get to enjoy the Fall day, talk to anyone, or be with a crowd. It probably took the winning runner longer to find parking than to run the race.

In 2016, I ran The Soldier Field 10 mile for the first time. I wasn’t really ready for it--I hadn’t trained well and I wanted to back out. But I realized, it would take me about 2 hours to run/walk the course which ran all along the lake on a gorgeous May morning on Memorial Day weekend. It was just me, my audio book, and about 6,000 people to keep me company. Well, 5,999--the winning runner was close to done before I even got on the course.

Today is the first day of my training program for the 2019 10-mile race. Last year, The Soldier Field 10-mile was on my birthday exactly; this year, it is the day before my birthday--I get to run it twice in this last year before I move up an age bracket. A BIG age bracket. That big age bracket. It’s my chance for a do-over.  

In both of my previous attempts, I finished in just over two hours. This year I have two goals: to run the entire race (no walking) and to finish in under 2 hours.  I have a much better training plan in place this Spring, and I’m down about 20 pounds from race time last year. I even have new shoes. But I don’t want to train too well. I like running and someday my body will tell me I can’t. Why would I want to rush to that day? Now, I just need a good book.