January 1, 2008 - Winston Salem area, NCRace Website Waiting patiently for the signal, I stood staring ahead down the dark
tunnel lit only by a small string of holiday lights along the road. The
lights did little to pierce the darkness surrounding them, but merrily
pointed the way for any who wished to follow the path. I wondered if my
body was ready for what I was about to force upon it, but I was itching
to find out. Those standing around me were getting anxious as well. We
were all ready for the change. The change of a new year.
It was New Year's Eve and none of my friends were around. I had blown
them all off for what is known as 'waiting for the best offer to come
along'. Of course they probably all knew that I would hold out until
the last minute to make my decision. This year was no different.
However I knew I had to take care of business with myself this night. I
thought of friends though as I stood outside in the cold winter air and
quietly wished them a happy new year.
The idea of running a 5k on New Years, that started at midnight,
sounded perfect when I found it online and being able to run through
the festival of lights sounded like fun. I had wanted to go dancing but
knew my 'smoke free' options were limited and my snobbish view towards
DJ venues would lead me nowhere, so I didn't bother looking. It was 8pm
when I decided to do the run so I had to high-tail it out of Chapel
Hill in time to get to the race site which was over an hour away on the
west side of Winston-Salem.
As I stood behind the start line with hundreds of others in front of me
I failed to really analyze how far back I was in the pack. I was just
too caught up in the moment. I also failed to consider that I might be
running through the dark this evening and it failed to dawn on me why
people were walking around with their LED headlamps on. I was off in my
own world. At the stroke of midnight, we were released into the
darkness, and I found out soon why some had their headlamps on.
During the first half-mile I snaked my way through the masses, pushing
my legs to the limit. As we wound our way down a hill, the road became
darker and shadows started playing tricks on us. What might have looked
like a bottomless pit in front of you was nothing more but fresh
asphalt. One particular shadow in the road was not a bottomless pit nor
a fresh asphalt patch. The zig-zag pattern that cut across the dark
mound in the road finally registered but it was too late. The mound of
asphalt formed by the tree root pushing up under the left side of the
road found its victim. A body to the left of me passed over the mount
and struck the pavement hard. Another body soon followed as I turned
around to see the masses piling up. I turned back to the road in front
of me and realized there were other hazards in the road. I started
yelling and pointing at holes as I passed them while barely missing
them myself.
Soon we were running through the festival of lights and the road
hazards disappeared. There were lights everywhere. We ran though a
tunnel of falling red and white snoe-flake lights. In a lake there were
lights shaped like a loch ness monster and animated fish jumping and
spashing in the water. There were lights of figures running and biking,
and elves loading canons that fired bursts of light across a field into
a display of fireworks. Of course since the festival of lights was
sponsored by Chik-fil-a, there were large banners proclaiming 'eat more
chickin'.
After the race I turned around and started back down the course in the
direction I had just come. I found a spot on top of the final hill just
before the finish line, and started cheering. I cheered and clapped for
strangers I didn't know. I cheered on their final sprint to the finish
and told them to give it one last push, for they were almost home. I
took in all the faces, young and old, strained and happy, bloody and
sweaty. Some runners, feeding off the cheers, picked up their pace and
tried to pass the competitors around them. Others, content with their
own pace and minds off in their own world, strolled peacefully by.
After the last of the runners made their way through the finish line I
walked to the middle of a large field and huddled around a table with
the other runners who were steaming more than the cups of of hot
chocolate in their hands.
It was nice breaking away from the football games and just
sitting behind a television watching others partying in Times Square.
It was refreshing out under the stars on that cold winter evening and a
fun beginning to the activities of the new year.
Raven Rock Ramble Bike Tour - May 4th
