The Cooper

Presidential Physical Fitness Test. The Mile. The Cooper. Good Lord the Cooper. In the culture of Hadley Junior High the Cooper struck fear in my obese heart. It was a mile and a half run that was done a couple times a year. One lap around the whole school yard followed by this crazy dirt trail. I could not run more than a hundred yards let alone a mile and a half. This was all made worse by the horrible red polyester gym shorts and red marbled ringer tee with my name written on the front in magic marker. Being the 80's, this ensemble could only be completed with the accessory of long tube socks and a kickin' pair of suade Puma's.

I remember the anxiety that came before this. I knew I would be last. I knew I would be wheezing and I knew I would be sweaty the rest of the day. Each running of this horrible thing did not disappoint in this regard. Then there was the locker room. We had a car wash style shower where it was essentially a tunnel to walk through with shower heads at various heights. We had green stiff weird smelling towels not much bigger than hand towels. Not to mention my existence of the fat girl in a locker room. I shudder just thinking about it. All of these things brought together an air off awfulness when the word "Cooper" was uttered by a way too excited gym teacher.

Today, I sit four days from my first race this season. I will admit it is twice as long as The Cooper. It is for fun and goes off in waves so there really is no chance of being last. I have traded the tube socks for high performance Under Armour socks (anyone who knows me knows I clearly have an under armour addiction, and may in fact need an intervention).  I have traded suade Pumas for Nike runners and polyester does not exist in my wardrobe. Nonetheless, the anxiety of running still exists even when my biggest obstacle this weekend is just an inflated tower and there is even beer at the end. Last year I ran this as a regular race. This year it is a warm up for a much bigger, much more terrifying 5 mile mud run two weeks from now.

I am finding that saying "life begins at the end of my comfort zone" rings true. As I move further along it becomes readily apparent my comfort zone had a pretty small radius before now. I am learning to embrace the phrase,"if it is really scary must mean I should do it". Time to put the trauma of the Cooper behind me and take on the obstacles one at a time.