YukiI’ve never run in marathons of any sort aside from school fundraisers. I don’t typically go running, and I wouldn’t call myself an athletic person. Yet today I found myself dancing to music in the MTSU football stadium parking lot while waiting for the four-mile run known as Borodash to begin.
Borodash is a nonprofit run/walk that is three years old, but this is the first time we (my mom, dad, Nana, and I) have participated. In the past two years, we had meant to, or wanted to, but never actually signed up or trained for it. ^^;
My mom, Nana, and I did a little training earlier in November not only to figure out how quickly we could complete the course, but also in hopes of increasing our stamina in order to complete said course a little faster. We knew that we could do it in at least an hour; for Nana maybe a little over an hour. But watching the crowds of people gathering at the starting line, I figured I would just do my best–racing was out of the question.
Once the signal was given to go, nearly everyone burst forth in a run or jog, and very soon after that the massive group began to divide. Due to the markers we had lined up at before the starting line according to the pace we would be setting for ourselves, the serious runners were in the very front and thus broke away first, while the joggers, walkers, and those with baby strollers were towards the back, in that order. This made it easy to spread out; no one was running anyone else over.
My dad was one of the ones more in the front of the group, while Mama, Nana, and I were closer to the back. After we started out, we had to leave Nana to her own pace; Mama and I kept up with each other pretty well for the first mile, but I couldn’t continue to keep up with her pace since I was out of shape. ^^; So I just walked and jogged with the people around me! It was pretty cool, actually. I think that knowing Mama was ahead of me (but still within sight for the most part) was encouraging in that I didn’t want to lose sight of her! XD Having so many people around me was definitely encouraging too, but in a different way. It was like…we could all do it, doing it together. With one common goal of doing it not for ourselves, but for others, somehow I felt that we were all comrades, all 2700+ of us. I can’t really explain it, but it was a great feeling.
#FIFTY1 Project #8…many in @thenbyg join 2700+ others for the BoroDash 5K. 43 projects left! #Thankful pic.twitter.com/FOPWFLYP
— David Skidmore (@sycamoreskid) November 23, 2012
^ (I’m the one in the panda hat! My dad, mom, and Nana are right beside me.)
All along the route, there were families standing outside on porches or in driveways (many of them in their pajamas!) wishing us a happy Thanksgiving as we passed. Even at one point, when I was nearing the final half-mile, a little boy who was trotting by on the sidewalk with his parents seemed to look right at me and said “Happy Thanksgiving!” I waved and said the same to him. It was so adorable!! x3 Another thing that was uplifting was the stations set up at every half mile or so, with volunteers cheering us on. From the sidelines, I think it can be somewhat difficult to cheer for the runners/walkers, because you do it continuously until the run is over. You say “You can do it!” so many times that you start feeling that the runners already know it and that they don’t need you to remind them. But it is so important to have that bit of encouragement, and even though I did know I could do it from the beginning, I was still extremely grateful to those cheering me on. Thanks, guys!!
My time ended up being 59:28… 59 minutes, 28 seconds. I mentioned in previous posts that Mama and I had decided we would aim for an hour…and we totally did it! Somehow! XD Thank you, God, for keeping us going!
Borodash is always on Thanksgiving morning, and despite the chilly weather and somewhat early timing, there is always a huge turnout–in fact, it seems to grow every year! Registration is $25 per person or $85 for a family 4-pack. You can either show up to run, or “BoroDoze” and donate $25 and sleep in. XD
Please check it out, and if you are in the Murfreesboro area, consider participating next year! It’s an amazing thing to be a part of. It really is.