Well I have been running for a while now (approximately 6 years... I seem to have lost count). Well does that make me a good runner.... well yes... if not good may be decent.
Today ran my first race as a Pacer Bus... so am I good Pacer... apparently not... as I learnt that today, the harsh way. I have paced friends before but never as a bus.
Turns out I am better personal pacer than pacing a bus. Today ended up modifying my pace to suit the pace of the people on my bus, totally ignoring my Garmin telling me I am on pace, behind pace and ahead pace (things I am so good at).
The thing is I am bad at planning and getting into the technical minuets of pacing, which in the end I should have done (and that came back to bite my sorry arse). Plus I should have had my watch showing me the time as well as pace. The whole time I was wondering am I going too fast or too slow. My fellow 2:15 Pacer was behind me so does this mean am I going fast (as you well know by now... I overthink everything). When someone asked me if I was in time I just looked at him and said I hoped I was. That proves I wasn’t much of help.
To top it all the route was more confusing than anything that could confuse me (And trust Me I am a confused nut) and went on and on and on (like an Amaron Battery... ting tong (oh come on... I had to get that in)). And then you had volunteers who were confused (can’t blame them... did you see the crowd). One volunteer was asking people... Apke gadi main kitna distance hua hai... 18 phir right jaoo.... poor chappy... made me go what the F... exactly. So many good runners lost their way, missed loops and ran extra. So You see a lot of them got more than what they signed up for, or maybe they were lucky enough to complete their Sunday long run. And then the Start and Finish point had no watch to indicate the time... you didn’t know if that was the Finish point (had a couple of runners ask me that). And then you had people who you would rather give a finger salute, on stage (total useless idiots). Sadly the efforts of all the pacers was not acknowledged, as I thought they would.
Well on the positive side, I had a wonderful time screaming myself hoarse, cheering people on, pushing them, trying to motivate them. I am not sure what was heritage about the Run (or I just didn’t notice it) but I had a good time running with people. I managed to rein my untamed spirit in to run at what I thought was a suitable pace. So in the end I did do what I love doing, running and cheering and screaming, being colourful in my language... in short... being myself. I felt more grateful than the people who came and told me that I was able to push them and help them ( the few who I managed to help). So in the end it made me feel blessed to be able to help. But most importantly made me salute the spirit with which We run with... fat, thin, young, old, able sand differently able, not letting our shortcomings come in our way, making each and every person a winner.
So in the end, would I pace again... well may be, or may be not, the jury is still out on that one. Though I maybe disappointed of not finishing on time and having to pick a faster pace the last couple of kilometres, I realised I have a learning curve in pacing too. Learn from it, soak in the experience and move on. The pacing sometimes needs to be about the Runner, not always about the timing.
So there you have it... my first experience as a 2:15 Pacer.
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