Taking a Load Off

Another challenge came before me that of course I could not pass up- a series of races through A Change Of Pace Foundation, to complete a certain number of races they host and get more bling. 
Now if you know me, I can't say no to bling.  I love the bling on the walls of my tiny hallway, people bumping into them to make a clinking sound...just like champagne glasses- OK, not really. I had signed up for the Lucky Run, which was a nice 7K (4.34 miles) that I thought was doable without killing myself.  I signed up, only to realize my two comrades were already doing the 7 mile route.
So of course, like I do, I crumbled at the least bit of peer pressure and switched to the 7 mile.....for one reason only. 
We were walking it. 
One friend is a walker.  She's not a runner, might never be a runner, but she walks & she rocks.  So there would be no running on this particular one, it was something I had never done before since I started running.  Walk it all. 
The first thing I noticed was the night before, there was not huge anticipation, no nervousness, no feeling of utter dread about the harder than hell task I was facing.  It was a simple, relaxed anticipation.  That was huge for me.  The feeling of dread before a race is usually this enormous load on my mind, at times weighing me down like a piano sitting on my back.  Never a good feeling, and lately?  It's almost enough to get me to stay home.  The feeling of dread appears worse and worse these days, as lets face it...running IS harder for me.  Not doing anything in terms of cross training, eating bad, not hydrating...so of course I'm going to dread it.  I'm making it 10X harder for myself.

So the concept of walking it was a new one and while I didn't completely discount the difficulty of it all, I knew it would be much easier than running it.  Longer, but easier, sure.  I loaded up and prepared as I would any race and we were off.
While I was glad for the change in pace and whatnot, I was baffled at the non-use of headphones.  I was super glad to have two to talk to, but honestly, I'll admit I missed my headphones and the pump up music to get me going.  But that being said, the conversation was great, I loved just chatting about everything and nothing all at the same time. 

I guess one could point out that I've forgotten about walking.  Just walking.  My patience is the biggest issue here though.  Less than half way through, I just wanted to be done....knowing we had a long time ahead of us, yeah, that was tough.  But in the end, we walked it, we laughed, we bitched and we finished.