The Smile Stash: Good Luck Charms

I took part in Shamrock half marathon this morning. Thanks to springing one hour forward and my nervousness from my kid's sleepover (her first!) at her friend's place, I did not have much sleep last night. I had run fewer than 20 miles in the past six months. I gained 25lbs during that time, of those, the last ten must be fairly recent. What would have been the correct sized race shirt at the time I signed up for the race is now two sizes too small. Now basically is the most ridiculous time for me to run a half marathon. It would have been prudent to downgrade to a more manageable distance- like an 8K or even 5K so I could join my kid and her friend. But I didn't.

I lined up at the start line next to my husband at his 8min/mile pace marker. We ran together for about a minute before he disappeared into the crowd and I fell back to my actual double digit pace. As with all my runs, I was not wearing headphones and relied on heavy thinking mode while running. I am never short of things to think about! I was thinking about Raaga and her friend and their 5K run that was in progress. Could they handle the rain? Did they give up on it? I was thinking about how I think I am a very practical person, and yet contradict my own declarations in many ways. During the twenty years that I spent in India, it was my ritual to touch my parents' feet prior to every monthly, quarterly, semi-annual and annual tests in high school and college. If the test was a particularly hard or prominent one, I would go to my pedananna's (dad's brother) house next door and touch the feet of peddamma and pedananna. Blessings from my parents (and from any available elders in the house) somehow became my prerequisites for success. Just last Sunday, before heading out for her Telugu test, I made Raaga touch our feet for good luck. I was internally laughing at my own hypocrisy. If she does poorly, I would be the first one to highlight the need for her to work harder next time as opposed to saying that she needs to touch a few more feet for blessings. She actually did well in that particular test and so my belief lives on for a little longer. :)

It was sweet coincidence that my mom had called me just then. I would have certainly touched my parents' feet this morning prior to my crazy run if they lived in town. I answered her call and told her about my run and that I would talk later. As I hung up my phone, I noticed the time- 1hr 11min from the start of the run, and I went past 6mile marker. Almost half way there, not bad, I thought. And I kept running. I saw mile marker 2 and 3 after that but not mile marker 7 as one would expect. Something did not feel right, I felt that I ran at least a mile, maybe two since mile marker #6. So I asked a friendly looking volunteer if I was on the right course for half marathon. "Half? No, this is the 5K and 8K course", he said. I could not believe what he just said. Surely the half course must be around there somewhere. I asked him if he knew the right path for half. "I don't know about half. But you are a few yards to the finish line for 8K! Might as well hit the line!", he replied nonchalantly. I still did not believe him. I ran a few more yards and sure enough I was at the finish line. The thoughts of ditching the run and going past that finish line flashed briefly on my mind. But the future humiliation from admitting that I abandoned my run half way outweighed the present enticement of ending the run. So I ran back, past the bagpipers, past the volunteer that thought I should ditch the run, up the hill until I saw the signs at an intersection. "5K/8K Turn Left", "15K Straight Ahead". It didn't say anything about Half Marathon. I asked the volunteer holding the 15K sign about half. She said 15K and half shared the course from that point on.

And so I continued, back on course, at least 25 minutes of backtracking later. It got very chilly and I was too cold to even pick up my phone and call my husband. There were hardly any runners left on the now hilly course. All the volunteers were beginning to pack up water stations as I went past them. It was all quite demoralizing and I was mostly walking. Anyway, I eventually managed to hit the finish line for the second time today, and by that point, I had been running for well over three hours. My steps app counted 18.5 miles. I had to do one last run to meet up with my poor husband who had to stand in the rain and cold after finishing his run. He told me he saw Raaga and her friend finish their 5K run despite their soaking wet clothes, socks and shoes. I felt so proud of the girls! Raaga did not touch our feet this morning. We did not even see her since last night as she was at a sleepover. She always has our blessings regardless, just like how I knew I have my parents'. Parents are undoubtedly the strongest cheerleaders and our unconditional good luck charms. That makes for a very comforting thought as I hit my sore body to bed.