Al Gordon Snowflake 4 mile Race

My first day of group training and guess what? We have to run a race!!! That's right. The head marathon coach Ramone, said he wanted us to do the race to pracitce what it's like to run with lots of people. Cool, I guess. I mean so far all I have done is run on a treadmill for my training, and even that is an overstatement. With the warm spell we were having this past week, I figured it wouldn't be too bad. But you know how the weather is: never like the weather guy says it'll be. In fact it's, 20 degrees outside! GAH!!! I have on my dance pants (I don't have running pants, yet), a sports top, a dry fit longsleeve shirt, the race shirt, my TNT shirt, a fleece, a puffy jacket, a scarf, a hat, gloves and for extra warmth those pants you put on over your clothes-they make that swishy sound when you walk and have zippers at the ankles so you can take them off over your shoes. About 10 mins before we start the race, coach tells us to strip down to what we are running in. That's funny, I am planning on running in all of the above. My toes are frozen and I can't feel my fingertips, how am I going to decide what to take off?? So coach suggests that I lose the puffy jacket and the over pants. It's a hard deal, but I do it. In fact I am glad I did. About 1/2 mile into the race I am HOT-can you believe it, hot!! Well, that is until we turn a corner and the wind takes my breath away. Man I could have used some carmex on my lips!
By the end of the first mile, my lungs are burning, my nose is running and my tounge is freezing to solid ice in my mouth from mouth breathing. YUCK! Why do people do this???
Then I remembered what coach Ramon had said, somewhere in one of his novel length emails, to take it in what you are doing: running with hundreds of people in Central park!! He was right. I took a look around, and it was incredible. I think it's how I managed to run the entire race. I mean save for walking up to get water at re-hydration tables. The cups of water were frozen, so you had to squish it hard in your hand, or poke a hole in the first layer of ice to get the water out. But as I said, and this really is what I am most proud of: I RAN all 4 MILES!! My time: 42min. A little long, but for someone who is not a runner, pretty darn good-if I may say so! Best of all our TNT teammates hung out and cheered us on at the 3/4 mile mark and about the last 3/4 mile mark. What a great feeling to hear others who know you cheering you on. We should have that for everyday life. It would certainly make getting out of bed and going to work a LOT easier for everybody!