"I Walk The Line"

Although I know that Reader's Digest did, indeed, put out a whole book of country songs at some point, it's still very odd to be encountering this one here. This heads up the new section, 'Country Music Hits'. I'm not a long-time Johnny Cash fan, but the album with the Depeche Mode cover (American IV: The Man Comes Around) really gets me, and seeing this song today reminded me to load that baby up on my iPod. It makes me cry.

I had a really great Mother's Day, in the end, though it didn't start out so well.

Today I ran the local 'Susan G. Komen Race For the Cure', certainly an absolutely worthy cause. Last year I couldn't run this event because we were out of town. So this year I woke up early, leaving two hours before the start of the race to ensure finding a parking place. I heard that 33,000 people were expected, so that wasn't really overkill. When I got to my parking lot of choice, I realized I had left my number at home. Back home I went, my stress rising exponentially. I hadn't really been looking forward to this race, races with large numbers of people have turned out to be not so fun. I did make it back to my lot before it filled, followed the crowd to the starting area (tents! vendors! advertisers! lots and lots and lots of people everywhere!), and got my chip. Relatively speaking, a small percentage of the participants were being timed for the 5K run. Because I was there so early, I had lots of time to kill. I filled out a 'In Celebration of . . .' page for my back. Because I was running, and on my own (not wanting to carry and run), I didn't have the option of collecting anything from the vendors. I joined in the group aerobic warm-up. I read other folk's back signs 'In Memory of. . .' I walked up and back on part of the course, I used the restrooms a couple times, I watched people. I felt very very lonely.

When the race itself finally began, it was nice to be doing something. It's relatively hilly course, which is ok, but tiring at times. I kept running, kept passing people. I only got noticeably slower in the last half mile or so, but I didn't stop. Still, my time was disappointing, but I told myself it was the hills. At that end point, I just wanted to get home. But where was my car? I'm not that familiar with that specific area of Pittsburgh, and I got confused, ending up not going out the way I had come in, and needing to walk uphill and back to the car. I felt totally exhausted and ready to cry.

I don't think I'm liking running races alone very much, and that isn't just a result of this last event. It would be very nice to be doing this with someone else. I see couples, or families (or am passed by children of same), and I'm very jealous. My husband's not so interested in these shorter distances, and I don't know any other women who are racing at all. To run with another woman, someone magically at my pace: that would be perfect.