Pictures telling a thousand words (roughly)

Look at that guy on the right of this blog. No. The far right. The guy in the blue shirt with the bicycle behind him. What do you see? (There are a number of my friends biting their tongues at this very moment looking for an appropriate answer to that question). Does that guy look relaxed to you? Or even worse (because, in truth, I actually look like I'm running in that picture). Look at these pictures. The guy in the yellow shirt this time. Yep, same guy as last time but, if there was a penny in those clenched fists of his, he would be making Lincoln cry those fists are so tight.

I did learn a lot of things out there when I was running PDR. Okay, don't wear the Brooks Adreneline 9s just yet for a lengthy run. Not quite broken in. Don't wear the new DryMax socks in Nova Scotia. Wear the older ones. Will do just as good if not better. When there is a gap in your socks by your toes, don't say, it will be allright and then complain about blisters afterwards when it's not allright. Fix it before the race starts. And, make sure you do a few miles the week before even if you don't have the time. Find the time. To do a few at least. Those little tidbits were easy to think about and fix. What I didn't really think about was how did I look? Or specifically, how did I feel?

I wrote a blog entry before about bad running habits. Even made it a New Year's resolution to try to correct them last year. One of the worse habits I have is not running relaxed. But, what does that mean?

First time I took notice of it was in a race that Steve (Runner) and I did one time in Connecticut, the day before the Falmouth Road Race. As I was finishing the last mile of a 5 mile race, a perfect stranger, who was cheering us on, looked at me and yelled, 'Hey you. Relax out there. You are running tense. ' Who me? I'm digging in. I want to have a strong finish. Who in the world isn't tense out here?' But, I knew what she was saying.

Flash forward two years from then to this year's PDR. And, I look at the pictures of myself. When you are out there, doing the best you can to finish in the fastest time possible, all you are thinking is finding something inside of you to finish this thing off. So, you dig deep. And, when I do that, automatically my arms go up and fists clench.

I will tell you now that I am not sure if I will ever know how to truly relax in a race. And, yet, if you ever watch an Olympic event, the announcers will always mention how relax the winners look as they cross the finish line. But, because of the pictures from PDR, it will remind me to chill when I run. Keep those arms down. Relax that kung-fu grip of mine. Don't be so stiff when I run. Just relax.