In praise of praise

I’ve only run a couple of 5k races, mostly because I am so dang competitive and I lack the physical ability to match my mental competitiveness. But when people cheered me on or hollered that I was looking good or running well, I got a huge boost from that and ran better and felt better.

This happened even during my normal runs in Kansas City. I’d see some of the same people every time I ran and a couple of them would give me a holler or cheer me on—what was really nice was hearing that sort of thing toward the end of a run. I’d have enough energy to finish strong instead of faltering at the end.

This morning I passed a fairly large running group on the first half of my run. Some had on T-shirts which mentioned a marathon and others were pretty clearly trainers or staff support for this running group. When I encountered them again on the second half of my run, they’d divided into three or four groups with a few stragglers in between. You could tell by then who was used to running, who weren’t runners but were still in decent shape and those who probably didn’t work out at all. I should say that I especially admire the folks who aren’t in the best of shape and still get out there and try—it’s not easy to start something like that and that’s doubly true when you’re with folks who are very fit.

So I cheered them on, especially the stragglers. I told them they were looking good, that they could do it, and I loved seeing them pick up their heads a bit more when they heard me.