SST: Everybody Run!

SESAME STREET TUESDAY

I am not a runner. I never have been. In a high school P.E. class they made us run a mile and a half at the beginning of the semester to gauge our running ability and then again at the end of the semester to see how we had improved. Since the evaluation was based solely on achieving a modicum of improvement, I flat-out walked the first time (scoring somewhere in the 25 - 30 minute range), and then at the end of the semester I mixed in the smallest amount of jogging with my walking (finishing solidly in the 20 -25 minute range). Since my time improved slightly, I passed the test. (I did, however, win the P.E. hula-hooping contest that semester, outlasting my nearest competitor by over a half hour, earning myself a gift certificate to the recently opened Spanky's sandwich shop.) Until I came to Michigan, that P.E. class was my most recent running experience.

But I got here to Ann Arbor and my circle of friends here includes many hard-core runners - there's even a Hill Street Run Club group on Facebook (I am an officer in said group with the title of "Morale Captain"). So in 2008 I made a resolutionary decision to run a 5K. I was planning on running in the Turkey Trot race in downtown Detroit on Thanksgiving morning and I started training about a month beforehand, but unfortunately I broke my foot shortly beforehand and had to miss the race (although Seth bandied around the idea of running the race as a costumed pair, a common occurrence in the Turkey Trot, with me in a wheelchair dressed as FDR and Seth pushing me as Eleanor Roosevelt). But another race opportunity has come up in Charlevoix, Michigan, a small town in northern Michigan about 4 1/2 hours from Ann Arbor. I jumped on board with the Charlevoix trip because I wanted to run a 5K, but I also wanted an excuse to go back to northern Michigan. Last summer I went up to Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes and the Traverse City area and it was amazing, and this year after the race I'm headed to the Upper Peninsula with a few friends to camp for a few days.

So once again I have been training to run a 5K. I'm actually a little embarrassed about my need to train to run such a measly distance when most of my friends (not to mention my sisters) routinely run a dozen miles or so on their normal runs. Most of my friends who are going on the Charlevoix trip with me are running in the 10K or half marathon races. A few weeks ago it seemed to me that 3.10685596 miles was a completely unrealistic distance for a human being to run, but last week I managed to run two whole miles without taking any walking breaks at all. I jokingly boasted about my feat in my Facebook status for the benefit of all my more accomplished runner friends, and my status elicited the following comments:

First of all, that's probably the most feedback I've ever gotten for a Facebook status post, and second of all, I'm now someone's "inspiration?" That's a lot of pressure - I hope that in Charlevoix I can at least finish my 5K before my friends finish their 10Ks and half marathons.

Wait, wasn't this a Sesame Street Tuesday post? Shouldn't it have a Sesame Street clip in it? Well then, here is the all-time number one Sesame Street running jam. I'm sure it was at the top of every runner's playlist back in the '70s.



P.S. I will be running the 5K using my friend Mike McMurtrey's registration because he pre-registered several weeks ago and then had to back out. What a guy - first he gives me his computer and then he gives me his identity!