Crunchy ‘Nanas

Is it possible to get runner’s high when you haven’t even run?

I’m sitting here trying to remember if I’ve ever watched a running race I could have participated in, and I believe today was the first time I cheered from the sidelines.

I made my plans to come to California for my niece’s birthday and my friend’s baby shower too late to register (at a reasonable price) and train for San Jose’s Rock n’ Roll half marathon, so after brief delusions of a 5 week training plan and an inappropriate use of cash, I decided cheering on my friends would be the best course of action. I thought assigning myself the role of “team photographer” would help, but I also thought I’d feel a bit sad, a bit envious.

Nope. It is really strange how I don’t even have to be running to have that “oh my god, I love fun races” feeling.  It shouldn’t surprise me though because I love being the cheerleader - go team! It was a beautiful day in downtown San Jose and it was just positive energy all over.

This is Erika. She began running 4 months ago. I could tell before the race when I gave her a good race hug and told her I was proud of her she was very excited but very nervous.

The woman kicked butt. I mean, we all knew she would but really she did! And the old pro CaliSeaStar kicked some booty too, despite not having a gold star run. The only thing that didn’t go exactly to plan was the photography. I took loads of pictures of people I don’t know, but well, I didn’t get very good pictures of my friends because every time I saw them I was too concerned with jumping up and down and cheering them on to allow the camera to stay in focus.

I know I don’t really have runner’s high since I don’t even get it when I run, but wow, I’m proud of these girls and everyone I saw out there!

This entry was posted on Monday, 6th October 2008 at  0:17 and is filed under Race reports. You can follow responses to this entry using the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.