A Race in Review

I've never run a race.

Well, what I mean to say is: I had never run a race.

I'd trained for a number of races, but something always kept me from actually running. (One of the things we like to say around the circus is that the best way to get a baby is to have me train for a half-marathon. Three times I've trained... and three times I've bowed out at the last minute, after discovering I was pregnant!)

On Sunday, though, encouraged by Jim and some very good friends, I finally ran a race --the Wharf-to-Wharf 10K, which began in Santa Cruz and ended in Capitola.

My friend Katie and I had agreed to run the race together. We'd meant to train together, but that never really worked out. (That, of course, is what happens when two moms of three try to coordinate running schedules.) Though we never actually ran together, we e-mailed our distances and times, and we could tell we'd be a pretty good pair.

We runners -- me and Katie and our friends Jay and Andy -- met up early, early Sunday morning to carpool to the race. (Jim had meant to run, too, but his mono made that impossible. He and the rest of the circus -- along with Andy's wife, Kylee -- would drive down to the race together, a bit later in the morning.) Katie and I were nervous. Jay and Andy, old hands at the race thing, were not.

My nervousness just got worse as we stood around, waiting for the race to begin. (Although I did get to see Jim Starling, who was also running.) As Katie and I walked toward our pace group, I thought that the whole thing had been a terrible idea. Of course, once the race actually started, my nerves subsided. We walked along in the giant pack until it thinned out, and eventually we began to run. (The first mile took us twenty minutes -- it was a lot of walking!) And everything after that was great:

• The course is gorgeous. Definitely hillier than my training runs, but gorgeous, nonetheless. The views of the ocean were amazing. It really is a shame I don't get to do all my runs in a similar setting.
• I had no idea that there'd be so much jockeying for position. I zigged and zagged all over! I'm not a particularly aggressive person, but I had to work hard to find a good space to run.
• The runners were fun. At various points, we ran alongside Elvis, Batman and Robin, and a nine-year-old who totally kicked my butt.
• There were bands all along the way -- cover bands, groups of drummers, folks playing recorders, and even bagpipers. Seriously, bagpipers.
• I discovered (thanks to Katie) that I actually run hills faster than I run on the flat. I honestly hadn't realized that. All I know is that I want to get the hills done. Sorry, Katie.
• Something about it being a race made the six miles go much faster than they have before. We were done before I realized it!

The runners! Just for clarity, Indy did not run. He's big, people, but he's not that big! (Picture courtesy of Katie Chen.)

The real heroes of race-day, though, were Jim and Kylee. As they were driving the circus to the race, Madeline threw up. (We should've known that the girls were under the weather, as they'd had a terrible night's sleep the night before.) Though lesser folk would have turned back, they forged on. Kylee (who, by the way, is pregnant, which makes this all the more amazing), helped clean up our poor little girl as Jim kept barreling down the highway. Then they fought crowds to meet us on the beach. And they even seemed cheerful about it.

The circus, post-race. Check out Madeline's ensemble: that's Mama's t-shirt and her sister's sweatshirt. It figures that the day someone got sick was the day I failed to pack a change of clothing for my bigger girls.

We'd intended to spend the day on the beach with our friends, but circus knows when to cut its losses. We let the girls play in the sand for a bit and then we headed home. We didn't get the day on the beach, but it was a good day nonetheless. (We went home and watched a Disney movie, because that's what you do when you're sick. Or at least, that's what you do when you're sick at the circus.)

Oh, and it's not the last you've heard of the circus and races. We're already plotting our next one!