Once again I am proud to sponsor the Harvest Moon Hustle 10K, one of the best races on the local running calendar. The race is fun and festive. It reminds me of my first 10K twenty years ago.
I was inspired to start running by Ken Hawley, my friend Jason's dad. He started running when it was still called "jogging." It's funny, you never hear that anymore! Anyway, he knew that I had started running to get in shape and he suggested that I try running a road race. I lived in Alliance, NE at the time, and there were few options. Ken had run the Bolder Boulder 10K in Colorado many times and raved about it. At the time, it was probably the second largest road race in the country, with ~50,000 runners. I was regularly running 4-6 miles, so I was in decent shape, but I had never considered running a race. I now considered myself a runner, or jogger, if you will, but a racer? Surely not.
I considered it a great challenge and signed up for the Memorial Day race (by US Mail!). I trained through the spring as best as I knew how. As the race approached, I was really nervous and excited. What would I eat before? What if I had to go to the bathroom? Do I stretch before? What if I couldn't finish? What would the other real runners think of me?
As I stood at the start and looked around, I saw very fit, obviously experienced racers, but also saw plenty of people just like me, maybe not first timers, but people just there to test themselves and take in the experience.
The Bolder Boulder starts in waves of thousands of runners. When it was time for my wave to start, I went out, not knowing if I was running too fast or too slow. I just...ran. The Bolder Boulder is a real spectacle. I saw people running the whole thing backwards. I saw a group that was leap frogging the whole race. And there were too many crazy costumes to count.
The race ends inside Folsom Field. As I neared the finish, I was overcome by emotion. I was going to finish my first 10K! Just two years before, I was 65 lbs heavier and could not run a mile. Now, with a little inspiration and a lot of hard work, I was not just a runner. I was a racer.
http://www.harvestmoonhustle.com
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