Chase the rear

Chasing the rear

I was lucky to be able to run the Chicago Marathon back in 2019. It was an amazing and grueling experience. And it was so fulfilling to be able to complete a marathon when the previous longest run I had ever done was about six miles on a treadmill.

There are many components to training for a marathon. There are many components to being prepared to race in the marathon. From stretching to getting your miles in, to carb loading, and food timing during the race and ensuring you don’t get dehydrated. There are outfits, shoes, accessories, and supports that all change based on the weather and conditions and so many factors. Unless you are a top elite runner who has a support team, there are several things you need to be ready to do.

Now that you have got all that out of the way, there is the actual race. And one of the main challenges many seasoned runners had told me, was all that prep doesn’t mean anything to the war your body is going to wage on your mind. Most runners who spend any length of time on these courses are fighting a major battle of wills. Will of your body to continue, but more so of your mind to tell your body to keep going.

There were several things that many runners I observed, and I did. Most of us had headphones of some sort and were pumping in tunes or talks or whatever it took to distract our minds from the absurdity of what we were putting our bodies through. And even then, that is not enough to always help you through things. Some runners were part of a group, and they had builtin support, but the group I was with was much faster, and that wasn’t going to be a reality after about mile five. So what to do? I decided I needed to put my mind to work, and I made up a game. I started playing, “Chase the Rear.”

What is “Chase the Rear,” you say? I am glad you asked. As I watched the dust from a few of my colleagues, I saw them continue at their much faster pace, and as I began to slow down, I moved to a much more manageable pace. And for miles 4–7, I watched as they got further and further from me. And yet in the plethora of humans running the marathon, I would catch a glimpse of the back of their shirt, shorts, or shoes, and know where they were. After a while, though, it was apparent that I couldn’t see them anymore. I was going to have to find a new rear. The benefit of having 45000 people in a single place is someone is bound to stick out. To my luck, there were hundreds of people who were wearing some of the most fascinating and ridiculous things. So I started chasing different people along the way. There were some who I would pass, only to see them pass by me later on in the race. Each time I would identify something on them to chase when my mind had enough until I found someone else to pursue. This game of chasing the rear kept me occupied until about mile 24. At that point, most of us were like, bring the end. Then we started seeing the final mile markers, screaming the soon-coming end to the torture that we had paid and signed up to do to ourselves. But it was the ability to shift my mind onto the backsides of so many others that taught me a couple of valuable things.

1. Chase something that interests you. There were so many captivating rears and backsides. I couldn’t understand why they had made attire or accessory choices that they did, and yet they gave my mind the distraction it needed.
2. Chasing doesn’t mean you are losing. In a lot of times, you think of chasing as being behind. Yet in the case of a marathon, you are rarely racing against anyone but the clock and yourself.
3. Chasing isn’t a negative thing. Even though I chased several people, they were uniquely helping me to distract my mind.
4. Chasing can still get you to a finish line. My goal wasn’t to place; it was to finish. Sometimes when you are chasing people that are ahead of you, you may never catch them. However, you will be able to finish things during the chase that will help you attain your goals.
5. The chase is exciting. The adrenaline and the ability to create an imaginary game created excitement and helped me with energy and the fight against the failing will and throbbing muscles. The enthusiasm was my fuel and made the experience so fun.

If you are trying to attain a new goal, you need to look for someone who is in front of you. Chase the rear till you pass theirs, and then find another Rear to chase.