Yesterday the team of Jenna, Joe, Cendy and I competed as a relay team in the Delaware Marathon. Competing with the the team name "Get On Your Moose", we each ran a 6.55 mile loop to accomplish the 26.2 miles. What is the meaning behind "Get On Your Moose", you ask? The origins of the phrase are found in Joe's high school baseball playing days. It is simply a variation of the phrase "get on your horse", which basically means, 'hurry up'. During boring outfield defense drills, Joe and his mates would yell "Get on your cheetah" to encourage the faster teammates to chase a challenging fly ball. For the slower teammates, it was "get on your moose".
It was a rainy, windy and cold day in Wilmington. When it looked like the rain would hold off for the race, the drops started to fall at the race's start. They didn't stop until our first runner, Jenna, finished her leg. Gradually the rain subsided, but the wind picked up. The second half of the 1207 connection, Joe, ran the next leg. Next was the wife & husband team - Cendy, then myself. We all ran fairly similar times:
Jenna: 1:06:47
Joejak: 1:01:10
Cendy: 1:05:38
Bill: 1:03:16 (4:16:50)
We finished 30th out of 36 co-ed teams - not that it was our goal to win, but it's interesting to note our relative position. We were proud of our times although there's always room for improvement. I hope that we can break four hours next year.
A common strategy for a long-distance run is repeat a mantra to oneself. I'm a firm believer in this technique, and use it every race. One of my favorites is "I feel good" which comes in handy when aches and pains start creeping into the legs, and I sense that the negative thoughts are affecting my performance. It sounds crazy, but I found that if my attention was focused on the aches and pains, it would only get worse. In this lies the power of the positive thought. Repeating the mantra "I feel good" helps me push through the most difficult parts of the race. My mantra for this race? "I am a Moose."
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