Video Mockery of an Amateur Marathon Runner's Post Race Reflection

I'm convinced that we all need a person in our life that can make fun of us and keep us laughing.  Someone that can put things in MAJOR perspective for us.  Training for a marathon is a lot of work.  It takes time, heart, energy, and sacrifice.  I'd be lying if I said that I didn't get attached to my goals and find myself very focused on my training.  We give a lot of ourselves.  And even when we try to keep things on the lighter side and not get too wrapped up in the outcome on race day, we almost all do.  When the race is over, good or bad, we have what I refer to as "race residue".  We have a bag of feelings and thoughts as we process the past 18-24 weeks and all that went into our training.  And we often have some pretty big feelings about the actual race. We sometimes lose sight of the fact that most of us are just doing this for fun.  Fortunately, my "race residue" isn't all that bad this time. Even though I had a bad race, I'm still  very thankful for the process and I'm glad for my training.  But the other night (before my last post on the Napa Valley Marathon 2013), I wrote down some thoughts over a glass or two of wine.  Some free verse....just words flowing.  In rereading it all, I realized how funny it sounded and how it was all a bit on the dramatic side.  Then I had my best friend (like a sister) of 17 years read it back to me.  HILARIOUS to me.  I was laughing so hard at the way she changed things and the way she made me sound.  It really put things in perspective for me in a oh so funny way.  It made me laugh for at least a good few hours to hear her using her best fake accent and thespian experience to depict how silly this post race bag of feelings and Amanda drama can appear to a non runner.  Of course she added some things so this made it even funnier to me.

Our feelings after a race are REAL.  We do work hard.  And our goals are important to us.  This is part of what keeps us driven in life.  We don't have to be elite athletes or olympic runners for our goals to be serious and meaningful to us.  But it can be easy to lose sight of a greater perspective sometimes.  I didn't see that happening to me so much now as I did several years ago after returning from an injury but I definitely spent at least a day or two feeling kind of sad.  All thoughts of sad or bummed out were gone once my BFF performed her rendition of

The Amateur Marathon Runner Reflecting on Life and a Bad Race. 

I promised a friend I'd post this even if it is rather embarrassing.  You're welcome Steph.  Making fun of ourselves is liberating sometimes. :) And Gosh, you'll witness my laugh when it gets really really out of control...that's embarrassing too.  But whatever.  I love to laugh.

Pure Mockery:

Amanda