Goin' racin'

I've never considered myself a competitive person. I think it's probably to my detriment, insomuch as I've just never felt the need to prove myself better than other people. This does not serve me well in competitive work environments, or at least it wouldn't if I ever found myself in a competitive work environment, a situation I've so far avoided, also to my detriment. Unless you count the competition Courtney and I have been having lately to see who can leave the deepest ass-print in our respective couches as we both sit and search for jobs.

While I may not be socially competitive (or at least not overtly so), I sure do like me some games. Give me a ball made from dead animal or a Trivial Pursuit board or a pile of rocks and something to throw them at and it's on. Still, I'm not that crazy asshole who will elbow his own grandmother's false teeth in just to get the lay-up, but there's no way I'm letting anybody win. I like to compete, maybe not at the game of life, but definitely at games.

And I'll watch them, too. I don't care what sport you want to throw up on the TV screen, I'll watch it. If they can figure out how to make grass-growing a competitive endeavor, I'll tune in. Even the sports I profess to loathe, such as basketball, can keep me inexplicably enthralled from time to time.

But I digress. The point to this whole disjointed piece is that I'm running a 5K in Georgia this weekend and I'm looking forward to that competitive rush that's been largely missing ever since my days of recreational baseball ended over a decade ago. Sure, it's just a short race being put on to benefit Habitat for Humanity and the prizes are probably along the lines of a gift card to Crapplebee's and half-off highlights at Fantastic Sam's, but when that race starts and I can see runners ahead of me and feel people creeping up at my heels and elbows, I'll be running a little faster than I do on my solo morning jaunts along the greenway. And I won't win the whole thing, or even my age group (I'm fairly sure of that), but there will be some poor asshole near the end of the race just trying to finish in good form without worrying or caring about anyone else ahead or behind him, and I will pass him by and he will know that I am faster.

No, I'm not going to end the post there (though I'm tempted), because I know that likewise, at some point in the all-too-brief race, someone else will pass me, and I won't see them again until they're hitting up the refreshment table at the finish. Really the only person who needs to hang their head is the person who finishes last, because they just suck. Unless they're an amputee or a cancer survivor or anything else that makes you an instant hero just for showing up. But that's a rant for another time.