President's Day run!

Written by Amanda Simmons


On Feb 20. 2012 I laced up my Saucony running shoes, pulled on my dry fit Nike pro combat long sleeve and my Dryfit tee from the Rocklin run I did last year. I looked really cute. I knew I had to make sure that I looked good because my friend would surely ask me to take pictures. Then I dashed out the door and made my way to pick up my brother, whom I had some how talked into running/ walking a 10k with me. I didn't want to go alone. Not because I was nervous. I prefer to walk/run alone. But because I wanted to share this experience with him. I remember the gratifying feeling of finishing my first race last year (my first since High School).

The race was in Burlingame, California. My home town. We drove over to Coyote Point where the race was being held. There we were greeted by a big old guy in a Hawaiian shirt "Ya'll signed up?".

We got our bib numbers and tee shirts.
10 am.

Race time.

I turned to my brother and said "Are you ready?".

"Ready as I'll ever be" he replied. And with that, we were off. The course started with a hill to the top of the point. From up here you could see San Francisco, the airport, the Bay Bridge, and all the way down the San Francisco Bay to the Dumbarton Bridge.

Down the hill we jogged through the Coyote Point marina. It was a perfect day. Slightly cloudy, to keep you cool. But sunny enough to keep you motivated. Along the bay trail we walked and jogged. At the 5k mark we decided to push through and do the full 10k. But we needed to walk the rest of this. This was my brothers first race and I wanted him to have fun and finish. People kept passing us and my brother started to look discouraged. I turned to him and started jumping around like a little kid who had just been given way too much sugar and said "Who cares? We'll get there when we get there. All that matters is that we got there. You're doing great! Just keep your chin up, look at where you want to go. WooHoo.It's just one foot in front of the other. Don't look at me in that tone of voice... I can do this all day! Let's go! YaHoo!"
We kept going. Just one foot in front of the other.
Once we got back to the hill we knew we were almost done. I looked to my brother "Ok, this is it. Almost there. Remember to finish strong!". We were jogging down the last half of the hill when he turned to me, gave me a nod. "Go ahead" I said. He took off running. Much faster than I had anticipated. The boy wanted to race! I took off. As we both raced over the finish line "You may be younger and now taller than me, but I can still kick your butt!" I skreetched. Smiling and out of breath, we laughed.
Over comes the big guy in the Hawaiian shirt with a bunch of medals. He draped one over myself and the one over my brother. Then gave us each a big bear hug.
6.2 miles in 1:36:28 with an average speed of 3.9miles per hour. But times don't matter. I am so proud of my brother. We started. We finished. We did it. That's all that matters.

"Wanting something is not enough. You must hunger for it. Your motivation must be absolutely compelling in order to overcome the obstacles that will invariably come your way". -Les Brown