About a year ago or so I did a 5K in my hometown of Athens. At the start line I began warming up by doing dynamic stretching that I learned at WoW BootCamp!. While I was stretching out I heard one guy say to another, "Well at least I won't be coming in last," as he jerked his head towards me. Another time I overheard a young runner say, "Geez with that fat guy there the race awards won't start for at least an hour, that means I have to stand around for forty minutes waiting on chubby, mcchubberstein to cross. I hate fat people." As Mammoths we have to endure these comments in stride. It is hard to just let it go but that is what you have to do. You need to always remember that you are racing against yourself and not the field. As a Mammoth I have long forgotten the notion of winning my age group or any other type of award. If I do bonus, but what I stick to is how am I doing compared to my last race.
Being the Fat Guy Guidon means being the pace setter for someone who believes because you are a Mammoth means that they should be able to beat you. It has been my experience that the people who do this are normally people who are very race inexperienced. To feel better about themselves they use your size as a motivating tool. You notice the FGGs because they blaze past you at top speed and then slow down to a walk about ten steps ahead of you as they pass. When you pass them you can sometimes hear an audible grunt of disgust as they are now required to pick up their own pace, when really all they want to do is just quit. I use these folks to ensure that I hit my marks. Yesterday, for instance, there were these two guys who were using me as their FGG. It really motivated me to keep up my pace and follow my intervals. The payoff came when we hit a part of the course where you double back to the finish and I saw this pair as they were struggling to finish while me and my herd were doing just fine. It is all about perspective. If you let these folks get to you then you will have a bad race. The key for me is to keep my marks, keep my intervals, and run my race.
Tomorrow I will discuss hydration and why its so important for Mammoths to do this during the cold season. Have fun on the range my herd mates, keep hitting your marks, following your intervals, and watch what your grazing on.
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