Teaching and Running Races

Amazing to me how similar my pre-race and pre-teaching anxiety levels and routines are.

With both I usually calm down a bit once I reach the site. I need to be early, sometimes ridiculously early when compared to normal people.

When teaching students about using the library databases I rely on technology to work. Rarely does it go off without a hitch. It's too easy for the system to be down, a computer needs to go through a rebuild process, the projection system is malfunctioning, the student computers are booting up forever. When I'm at a race it's generally my body that is malfunctioning. I need to use the bathroom, the lines are too long, I can't go once I'm in the port-a-john, I feel like I have to go again three minutes after exiting the loo.

I have taught thousands of lessons over the years. I'm not really good at it, definitely not one of those natural teachers who loves leading a class of students. The subject matter, while important, isn't exciting, really, how do you make learning MLA or APA citation styles into a fabulous lesson? I'm open to ideas. I've run hundreds of races since 1980, maybe more. I've had a few memorable races, but generally am doing well if I get in the top 20% of my age group. Similar to teaching, I'm in the middle if you are grading me.

On a really anxious day, like if I'm working with a professor I've never been with before, or they have a screwy lesson plan that even I don't understand, I can hyperventilate. Yes, I've read all the articles and books about presenting and relaxing, taken workshops on teaching, yada, yada... I still can get over the top with nerves. So I breathe deep, tell myself it's 50-90 minutes of my life, think about how far I've come from the kid who seldom raised a hand in class in case I got the answer wrong. Funny, usually once everyone is situated and I begin the class, things go fairly well. It's also strange how the chemistry of each class can be so different even with the same professor.

There have been a few races that I made super important in my mind. I need to reach a certain time goal, qualify for the Boston Marathon, qualify for the Snowshoe National Championships or maybe run in the championship. Similar to teaching, in these cases, my anxiety is ridiculous. I have blown races, particularly the Snowshoe Nationals, simply due to using too much energy worrying about the race before it even begins. I have a nickname, thanks to my kids, Psycho Dad. It's reserved for those times, pre-race, when a side of me comes out that isn't pretty.

For two years, unbelievably, I was the moderator/question reader for the National Geographic contest when I worked at the Byron-Bergen central school district. This was a big deal. I was Alex Trebek for the day and spent weeks learning to pronounce all the strange words. There were 500 people in the audience. Was I scared? Oh yeah. But I volunteered for it just to prove to myself I could do it.

One of my greatest races was the Cherry Blossom 10 miler in Washington DC. Not because of my finishing time, though it was decent, but for how I felt before and during the race. There were thousands of people in the race, but the starting area, in front of the Washington Monument, didn't feel crowded. We were seeded and somehow I was put into one of the front corrals. It was so cool. I was just a few feet away from the elite women, some of the fastest women in the world. I got to watch them warm-up. A sense of calm came over me while waiting for the starting gun (cannon?). It was a day made for running and I always like doing races in DC, not sure why. To top it off, I ran with Bill Rodgers, one of my heroes, for almost three miles during the race.

Since that race, which was about five years ago, I have been looking to capture the feeling of how lucky I was to be standing there, in good shape, feeling so relaxed. I think my anxiety levels will continue to be a work-in-progress, whether in the classroom or on the roads, but I promise to try and improve.