The Madness of the Short Distance Runner

So after a short break of 8 years, I've started running again, and this weekend marked it officially when I ran the 'Badische Meile'. Sounds like bad-ass miles to you non German speakers, what it actually is though, is an 8,88km road race that marks the distance of some old city wall or something.
As I am a mere fan of Germany and not an actual German, I can not bring myself to say that I participated in an 8,88km run - let's just call it a 9k run, ok?
Running is an important activity for those who leave the house too late in order to catch buses & trams, handbag snatchers, people who get caught in the rain a lot, latecomers, and those who are not clinically insane but in general just a bit mad. I belong to that latter group of the 'just a bit mad'. So I started running again.
There are benefits - when your mind is racing 24/7, running chases it and calms it down, running gives you a high, gets you fit, and it is seductive. Once you get involved you will find yourself falling in love with running and out of love with the couch potato.
Running in the forest and feeling alive is one thing, running around the streets of whatever city you find yourself on business in, is another, but running an official race when you're about 20 years older and 20 kilos heavier than the average participant is a bit like trying to fit back into one's wedding dress again.

But hey, I'm at the start line and my three teenage kids have all declined the challenge to run with mother - possibly more due to the mortification factor of being seen with mother than actually running. But still - it's an official run and the fear of failure, the fear of an injury in public, the fear of looking downright stupid (I get a big red face when I run, from the outset), and the fear that I will publicly display what a stupid idea it was to think I was even possibly a candidate to be in the running, makes this very very different to my daily runs. I'm scared!
Besides, I run anywhere between 4k to 6k when I'm out running, so how the hell am I going to get out there and run 9k?
Before race day I had practised running 6k and then walking 3k, just to get the distance, so my strategy was to just get out there and push the 6k, then walk the rest, even if it meant that I would come last out of the 6,000 runners. I pictured the TV being there to film the crowd cheering me on for being brave enough to be the idiot who came last across the finish line. I'd be interviewed. I had my speech in my head. It began with 'I had a dream…'

But then, all of a sudden, I was right in the middle of thousands of other slightly mad people - and my feet were moving, and my Nike App was telling me that I was doing great, and suddenly I had run one kilometre and I thought, well if I can run one, surely I can do another eight.
But seriously folks, here is what got me from start to finish - the training, of course. You need to build up heart/lung function and muscle in advance. But that is not enough. I decided to run each kilometre for somebody in my life. The first was for my mother who is very unwell. I decided to send her all the energy I was creating. I ran for my kids - it was also Mother's day, so those 3k were happy gratitude kilometres. At 5k I was hitting my boundaries and started to get a pain in my shoulder. It felt like someone was stabbing me, but I decided that the only way to cure it was to keep running. So that kilometre was run for an anonymous person -  endurance to give me strength in a situation which is one of hopelessness and hope, pleasure and pain.
Kilometre 6 was for my goddaughter Catherine. Just because.
The last three were for three people who have made my life happier, better and been there for the peaks and the troughs.You see, I wanted to celebrate the power of love and it worked. The last 3k were easy.
The other driver was my playlist and the nice lady in my Nike App who kept interrupting my songs to tell me that I was doing great.
So 66 minutes after leaving the start line I jogged across the finish line, it was about ten minutes longer than the few other people I knew who were running it too - but a few minutes under the time I had expected it to take. Yay!
I was on a high. Full of fulfilment, pride and happy hormones. Yes, a big high for all of about 2 minutes.
And then? Then I got into the queue to pick up my rucksack. Got it. Took off the medal and the number and put on my jacket. Walked to the tram stop and got the tram home. Showered, threw on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, sat on the sofa, watched Desperate Housewives and had a cup of tea.
All in a day - the madness of the short distance runner.