goats and tacos

Sometimes the most random, innocuous, and completely unconnected avenues of life intersect.  From different corners of the hemisphere, they collide unexpectedly to form interesting and unique circumstances that can fade as soon as they appear or change life forever.  I never know when they’ll happen, but when they do it’s a beautifully familiar feeling, like putting on an old pair of jeans right out of the dryer, or the first bite of my mother’s mashed potatoes and gravy.  Regardless of the outcome, these moments in time are special and they almost always remind me why I’ve grown to love running so much.  This week I experienced one for the ages.

My classroom at Bentonville High School is colorful to say the least, with most of the wall space dedicated to different variations of psychology, icons of pop culture, exemplary student work, and a sizable collection of running accoutrement.  I try to strike the correct balance of making the environment an inviting place for students and not a shrine to what I love, but having no acknowledgement to running would feel sterile to me.  Hopefully I’m encouraging the students to give it a shot themselves, and some of them excitedly share their race and training stories with me.  I love it when they do.  I also really enjoy having track and field athletes as students, and always try to show up to their events so they know i’m proud of their efforts.  BHS has a wildly successful program, which makes it easy to root for them with each firing of the gun.  

I had very little interest in running the 26th annual Chile Pepper Cross Country festival this weekend, mainly due to a lack of sleep and energy, but one particular student continually asked if I would be there.  I tried to deflect with vague responses, but he wasn’t having it.  So with just a few days left before the race, when he asked for the third time, I finally committed with a half-hearted and unenthusiastic “of course i’ll be there.”  Sealing my fate, I sat down to eat lunch after a long morning of teaching personality theory, and knew within minutes that i’d made the right decision when I began to read the newspaper. 

Right there on the front page of the sports section was a feature length article about the BHS Cross Country team and their training leading up to the Chile Pepper.  For months, they’d been meeting after school on the outskirts of town to train on dirt roads that closely mimicked the terrain they’d see at the race.  They’d been diligently working hard for a few weeks when, without warning or any specific reason, they saw a goat standing on the side of the road ahead.  As they approached he intently watched them with awe and intrigue and a curious but friendly stare that only a goat in the middle of the country is capable of producing.  As they passed, that’s when it happened:  the goat started running.  

But the goat didn’t turn and run away back to goat land or wherever he lives.  He ran toward the team and began to pace with them stride for stride.  Bewildered and a bit confused, the team pushed forward under the assumption that the goat would follow them for a few seconds and peel off, but that didn’t happen.  As if he were a normal part of the team and doing exactly what he was supposed to, the goat pushed on with the guys, never losing pace, for at least another mile.

Over the weeks the goat continued to show up, running along with the team as they continued to train.  A few of the guys were even able to pet him a few times, but mostly they just ran.  The goat did his own thing and the team enjoyed the company.  Eventually a friendship developed and the guys pushed themselves to beat the goat.  Sometimes they did, sometimes they didn’t, and there’s even video footage to prove it.  

The hard work and inclusion of their hoofed friend must have paid off, because the Tigers had a great showing at the Chile Pepper and, oddly enough, so did I.  It could have been the perfectly cool temperatures or the fact that I saw my great friend Deanna in the starting corral, but for whatever reason I shaved about 6 minutes off the 10K times that i’ve been recording for the last two or three years.  In the final mile I felt like a champ, with just the right amount of energy in my legs and air in my lungs to pick up the pace and finish strong, which is exactly what I did.  

  
The Chile Pepper is a huge event every year, with open races as well as high school and collegiate competitions.  The latter regularly draws world class athletes from top schools across the nation, and the Arkansas Razorbacks are always in contention to win, and this year was no different as both the men’s and women’s teams finished first.  But possibly the most unique component of the Chile Pepper is the taco bar that’s available to all runners after their races.  Yep, tacos.  There’s the usual fare as well, bananas and gatorade, but I skip all that and head straight for the main event.  There’s no shame in my game.

The Chicago Marathon is exactly one week from today and I can’t wait to run my 10th marathon where I ran my first.  I’ve trained all summer and into the early fall, doing a fairly good job of staying on schedule with my nonexistent training plan, and my legs feel great.  I’m ready!  Regardless of how I do, I won’t have relied on long runs and carb loading, cross training and stretching, those aren’t the things that will get me across the finish lines.  It’s the goats and tacos of running that will push me through, because those random and innocuous stories of life are what make me smile and remind me to cherish ever mile.  It’s not the typical motivation and it doesn’t work for everybody, but it fits me just fine.  

Run.