Groundhog Day

It’s been a bit like groundhog day for me, I keep meaning to update here and then life sucks me in and I have a million things to do and next thing you know I’m sitting here at naptime trying to post and then naptime is over again. I’ve also been thinking of groundhog day because I was in Kansas City this week. The site of my very first race, the Groundhog Race.

It’s an odd race run in a series of underground storage facilities. But there are lots of donuts at the finish line! It got me thinking of fun and funny races, like the one a running friend’s brother did. It was a relay and instead of a baton the runners passed each other a burrito and the rule was that your burrito had to be completely eaten by the end of the race.

Thinking of my first race got me excited about running some more races and better yet, got me looking ahead to warmer, sunnier days that as the groundhog will tell us soon, are lurking on the horizon. I’ve already got one race on the schedule and I’m trying to convince my friend Joanna to venture south and do the Danskin triathlon with me in June. And if Joanna’s willing to do something different, I’m thinking I should be too, so I’m going to try and find a fun or different race too. I’ve always wanted to try one of those adventure races. As long as it doesn’t involve orienteering, because I do not need the embarrassment of being the only competitor who gets lost with GPS.

I think 2010 should be the year of venturing outside your comfort zone. Do something that scares you a little bit. My mom was telling me about an episode of This Emotional Life about fears and the guidance was that you really need to face your fears. “Unless it’s bears” I said. “What?” said my mom. “Unless your fear is bears, it’s not a good idea to confront them.” “True” she agreed. So let’s all resolve to do something a little bit frightening this year. Something that doesn’t involve bears that is. Like running a 10k instead of a 5k, that’s scary, but in a good way.

Here’s a little something bearish for your running mix.