Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Myself Be Humbled

Still on the topic of feeling humble, I shared with D a couple of my favorite humbling mishaps. Unlike yesterday's post, I wasn't humbled because I felt particularly full of myself. It was because I wasn't particularly good at what I was doing!

My first humbling incident occurred during my summer of learning how to sail. I went through the sport sailing route so instead of learning on bigger keel boats, I learned on Lasers about 15 yrs ago. Turned out I am a horrible skipper and lost every race I participated in by a huge mile.

The worst result, I think I was 1/2 hr late getting in. Everyone else had taken their sails down and folded them and some had already left. Not only was I slow, there wasn't enough wind so my crew and I had to use our oars to paddle in! At one point before the paddling started, we nudged another docked boat at the yacht club...

If it was any consolation (not really), I aced any and all the written tests I had to take that summer. I just couldn't seem to apply it when I was on the water.

My second humbling experience came about 7 years ago when I ran my first 10km race. Race is a very loose term for what I doing as I am not considered a fast runner. It was my first race ever and I ended up choosing the 10km because it fit the timing for D's race weekend.

I dressed poorly on race morning. I thought it was going to warm up so I skipped over my running tights and went for the shorts. The temperature was 1 degree Celsius and it did warm up -- to only 4 degree Celsius. I was freezing and my legs didn't want to move for me.

I guess the police officer who saw me coming up a hill didn't realize I was so slow, because he held up traffic so I can pass but when he realize I still hadn't made it up the hill, he let traffic go and told ME to stop. After quite a few seconds, I waved at him, pointed at my watch and my race bib...

The race I ran in was in preparation for the "real one" that was to come 3 weeks later when D ran his marathon. Needless to say, I wasn't impressed with my experience. A race volunteer even gave me a Werthers candy, probably because I looked so bad...like I had hypothermia...

Three weeks later, I ran the "real race" and came in middle of the pack in exactly the opposite weather -- hot!

3 comments:

  1. I didn't realize that you were a runner are you still running today? How about D is he still interested in running the ultras? I've been humbled many times, once when I ran my 1st 1/2 marathon. I finished last and recieved the Quenn of the Lake trophy for that...plus getting sick at the finish line. No too cool but I've come a log way since then.

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  2. There's a famous Chinese proverb that goes something like: There'll always be a mountain higher than this one. In other words, there will always be another who is better at X than you are so don't be too impressed with yourself. Be humble; there's always something one can learn from another.

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  3. Hi Sue!

    I wouldn't call myself a runner as I will only run now when I feel like it, which isn't often.

    Since D has gotten into trail running, I am more interested in trying that vs. the sidewalk.

    D is training for a fall marathon. Then I'm sure he will want to get into the ultras after.

    Now that the kidney stone incident is a thing of the past, he is anxious to get back into the swing of things.

    Thanks for sharing your running experience. You are an inspiration!

    Hi Sandra!

    Thank goodness I can laugh at myself or else I think those 2 experiences would have scarred me for life!

    I definitely have more respect for people who are humble.

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