By MIKE ECKERT
Chances are, somebody along the parade route downtown early Saturday morning scratched their head and questioned what was going on in front of them.
As they sat in their camping chair, sipping coffee and holding a prime location for the National Cherry Festival parade, the question had to arise: What could possibly possess someone to get up at the crack of dawn and beat themselves to a sweaty, stumbling mess for the annual Festival of Races? And to top it off, pay $30 for the experience?
Don't feel bad, I was asking those questions not that long ago. But times have changed.
About two years ago, I decided to make an effort to get healthy and after much hesitation, running became a big part of it. It started with quarter-mile runs mixed in with a lot of walking. Slowly, I added more laps, more miles and recently got the crazy notion to start running distance races.
In just my second run, I did the 5K Saturday morning. And by the end of it, I was, in fact, a sweaty, stumbling mess of humanity.
Worth it? Absolutely.
There isn't much that compares to the rush of turning the final corner, seeing the finish line and pushing to the end. It's exhilarating.
I've come to find that for the majority of the runners out there, the only things that matter are finishing the race, setting a personal best and doing so without stopping. Winning is completely irrelevant.
In Saturday's race, I was passed by a ton of little kids, and people old enough to be my grandparents. I finished 46th in my age division in 27 minutes, 54 seconds.
And I couldn't be happier about it.
Going in, my goal was to beat 29:12. That was the time I posted in my first race, the Turkey Trot in Lansing last Thanksgiving.
Mission accomplished.
Too much in sports, we categorize things as definite winners and losers. But in running, the line isn't so clear. I didn't see many people walk away from Saturday's race with their heads hung low -- minus the handful who got sick after finishing.
There was a lot of support from spectators around the course, even for those of us a long way from the front. People stood in their yards, rang bells, clapped and shouted words of encouragement.
Good luck finding rabid support for the 46th-place finisher at a golf tournament, for example.
Running is about the finish, not the place or rank. And for that brief moment when you cross the line and know it's over, you can't help but feel like you've accomplished something special, something elite.
That's a feeling completely worth the sweat and $30.
