Pre-race jumping. There was no post-race jumping.
Pre-race jumping. There was no post-race jumping.

It seems that we’ve all collectively decided that the best way to be is really really busy. I saw a lady reading newspaper while walking down the sidewalk. My first thought was: “Cool. That lady really prioritizes reading in her day.” My second thought was: “Dang. She must be really busy all the time.”

I don’t think there’s a hard and fast rule that people should only read books at home with a cup of tea or whatever, and I don’t think that people should get down on themselves for engaging in all sorts of activities. I do think, though, that it was cool of her to be thinking about how to maximize all of her moments in ways that she enjoyed.

Another person that’s really good at this is my friend Rosy. I drove north to visit her and run a half marathon this last weekend. A few things didn’t go as expected, but Rosy kept up a great attitude and an adventurous spirit, and hey! we had much more fun than if everything had just gone as planned.

The weekend started with a long debate about the pros and cons of driving versus taking the courtesy shuttle. Pros of shuttling: The race was an additional 60 billion miles from Rosy’s place of residence and gas is expensive. Cons of shuttling: The scheduled shuttle departure time was obscenely early (7 AM), 20 minutes away, and would get us to the race an inexplicable 2 hours early. We decided to take the shuttle. Result: Much caffeine chugged before we left to get the shuttle.

The shuttle, however, never came. We ended up hanging out in the parking lot with 6 other folks for about an hour and a half before deciding that it was probably best just to drive. Result: 6 new good friends!

We still arrived at the race start about an hour early, so we wandered around and mingled for awhile. Rosy found a basketball in the woods so we played a game of “GoatRock”. I lost. Result: an hour-long pre-race basketball warmup!

At about mile 10, I was still feeling pretty snappy and wanted to speed up the last couple miles but Rosy was feeling that our current pace was ideal and wanted to stay steady. I busted ahead and this resulted in my Favorite memory of the race. As I was ambitiously charging up this approaching hill, I heard Rosy yelling behind me: “YEAH, MOOPS! GO FOR IT! GOOD JOB, MOOPS!” She cheered me on for a while; I still heard the lingering woops when I was about a half-mile ahead her. Result: Rosy is the best race partner.

All in all, plans don’t always go according to plan, but an adventurous attitude that makes the Best of every situation will always pull you through. Maybe it means you’ll be walking down the sidewalk with a newspaper, or maybe it means you’ll be cheering on the friend that ditched you. Either way, I think it’s the best way to be.