Karma is a Funny Thing

I've believed in karma for a long time -- not necessarily in the cosmic, come back as a jellyfish kind. But in the simple, what goes around comes around kind. But I recently learned that karma has a great sense of humor. Case in point: if you sign up for a 5k with a fake name (that's right, a fake name), karma will have a super star celebrity show up and race with you. Then you sound like an absolute weirdo when you try to brag to people.

I haven't participated in a road race for almost 10 years. For some reason, I recently felt compelled to run a 5k. I had two levels of goals. My base goal was to finish the 5k. My super goal was to finish in under 30 minutes. I was really nervous about the whole thing. I honestly didn't know if I could do it. I picked a dinky race with a wide range of finishing times for 2009. It was close to home so if I bailed, we didn't lose the day. I didn't register ahead. Instead, I showed up on the race day and signed up under a fake name.

While Shawn and I were waiting, we noticed that the race set-up seemed a bit more involved than usual. There was a professional boom w/ camera, lots of production people, a food services table, make-up artist, etc. That's odd. We thought that maybe they were covering it for the local news but that should be one reporter and a camera guy tops. Oh well, I had more pressing issues to attend to like using the bathroom 501 times and trying not to shart my shorts.

Finally, they lined us up in the starting area. Shawn wishes me luck and leaves. Then suddenly, he comes running back saying "Jillian Michaels is here, Jillian Michaels is here". Okay, yeah, we're regular viewers of the Biggest Loser but did I think he could spot her, no. Plus, why would she be at a dinky road race? Then over the loudspeakers, who's voice do I hear? Jillian Michaels. She was there to shoot for her new show "Losing it with Jillian".

Here she is pumping everyone up for the race.
Oh my gosh. I'm running my race with Jillian. I have visions of Jillian and Deb (the mother she worked with for this episode) passing me and it being displayed on national television. I had a new goal...don't embarrass yourself! If you see Jillian coming, run into the woods and hide until the camera crew passes you. No one needs to know. It will be our secret.

Team Deb at the starting line.
Team Deb at the finish line. Congrats Deb!

Things I learned:
1. Shawn is a risk taker. While I ran, he ate a plain bagel with cream cheese and sipped an ice coffee in the presence of Jillian. I would not want to make that lady angry with a nutritional black hole breakfast!
2. Jillian is tiny. Not in a gross way. She's petite. But whoa those guns are impressive.
3. Running Moms are amazing. I ran the last mile with a Mom who pushed her four year old in a stroller the whole time. Amy and Katy - you'll be happy to know that I told her she was awesome and that she was my hero (yeah I did). As we came in, she had enough gas to sprint to the finish while I tried not to trip over my tired feet.
4. I can finish a 5k. I finished a bit ahead of 30 minutes.
5. Technically, I beat Jillian in a road race (results). Oh yeah, except I didn't because I registered under a fake name. Nice one.