Eye of the Tiger, Baby!

Training has been slogging along.  Nothing great, but nothing horrible, either.  Until today, I guess.  It wasn't completely wretched, but I had to do 6 miles today (the longest so far), and it was a real battle.  The little voice inside my head was very whiny - "it's too hot...  why is it so hilly here?...  my feet hurt...  boy, that wind is bad!"  But, one good thing about an out-and-back run is, once you run 3 miles out, you are kind of forced to turn around and come back!  Actually, today, it was a good thing I didn't have my cell phone with me when I was running.  Because by the time I got to about 4.5, I probably would have called for a rescue ride if I had the phone :)


Now, on to my funny story.  A little background first: Abby swims with the Dayton Raiders swim team, and almost all of her training swims are out of the Wright State University swimming pool.  Since all of her practices are either 60 or 90 minutes long, this is a very good chance for me to get a run in.  So, Friday night I had to do 3 miles.  This weekend was also Air Force Marathon weekend here around Wright Patt Air Force Base, so there were tons of people at the University's Nutter Center on Friday night for a 5K to kick the weekend off.  My running course usually takes me around the campus, down by the Nutter Center, up a big hill on the back side of campus (where the president of the University lives), and back to the swimming pool.  On Friday night, though, I noticed they had a bunch of the campus set up with cones and signs, because the 5K was going to come right through there, so I ran down the other way to avoid all of the thousands of people and cars by the Nutter Center.


As I was running out, I asked volunteers at several of the intersections, if the 5K had come through yet, because I didn't want to get caught in the middle of the race, going the wrong way!  They assured me that the race hadn't started yet, so I ran out toward Fairborn, and then back.  Again, back the other direction toward the pool, I asked volunteers if the race had come through while I was out in Fairborn, and the answer was still "no". 


So, here I am, struggling all by myself on the same course that the race will take, up the hill on the back side of campus, when I come upon the driveway to the president's house, and there is the WSU pep band!  They thought that I was leading the race, because they all started cheering for me!!  I immediately ripped my head phones off and told them, "Thanks, but I'm not in the race!"  They all laughed (and I was dying laughing inside, because if you have ever seen me run, you would definitely know that there is no way I would be leading a 5K!)  Then, the pep band leader turned around to his music stand, raised his baton, and yelled to his band:  "Eye of the Tiger!  Hit it!"  At which point, the WSU Pep Band "Eye of the Tiger'd" me up the hill...  I smiled as I passed them and thanked them graciously, I ran like a rock star all the way up the hill, walked after I got out of their sight, and I giggled all the way back to the pool.