A little friendly competition.

Ever since I started on the new and improved Weight Watchers, I've been following this blog by WWs' CEO, David Kirchoff. I really enjoy it. Like everyone else who works for WW, Kirchoff has lost weight on the program, so he understands what his clients are going through. He also happens to be a good writer, and a man after my own heart in many food and exercise-related issues.

Case in point: Earlier this week, Kirchoff posted this entry, writing about how he does better at exercise when he takes group classes because the presence of other people kicks into his competitve drive. I totally get that. I wish I could say that I push myself just as hard when there's nobody watching, but it wouldn't be true. Even though I'm not enough of an athlete to compete with most of the people in my races and exercise classes, I still go much harder when there is some element of competition involved. A few examples from this week:

Thursday: Having finished one multi-week torturous cycle of activities in Boot Camp, our instructor Kate started us on something new. She divided the whole class into teams and had us compete in a series of timed drills and relays. Losers had to do extra pushups. It was SO MUCH FUN. Everyone got way into it- by the end, there was definitely strategy happening. It was so much fun that, for perhaps the first time in that class, I actually forgot how hard I was working. Good times.

Saturday: I joined a shockingly large number of people at my gym for a special 90-minute "endurance day" spin class. Our instructor Bill (who also teaches my Group Power class) put together a St. Patrick's Day-themed ride, including a video tour of Ireland, Irish music, and a leprechaun hat that he actually forced himself to wear for the whole 90+ minutes. In case you were wondering, 90 minutes is a lot of spinning. There were definitely a couple of points where I felt like packing it in. In this case, it was less competition and more just group spirit that kept me going. The room was packed and people were having a genuinely good time, which made the time go by much faster.

Sunday: My friend Jaquisha has been doing a "hibernation to 5K" training program for the past 6 weeks, and today she "graduated" by running her first 5K race. She invited friends and I decided to go (a) to cheer on my friend, and (b) to try again for a sub-30 minute 5K. (My previous best was 30:16, set last month.) My PC classmate and former fundraising partner Katie C. came too, along with her running buddies Erin and Amir. Having Katie, Erin, and Amir there was a real blessing for me. They set a challenging pace and having them around kept me motivated to hang on to it (which was not easy). When we got to the finish line, I had to do a double-take: 27:19! Better than I ever imagined! Then, as the icing on the cake, we got to cheer as Jaquisha crossed her first (but certainly not last) finish line.

Before I sign off, I also need to send a HUGE congratulations to my friend Scott, who completed his first Half-Ironman yesterday (1.2 mi swim, 56 mi bike, 13.1 mi run) in a staggering 5 hours, 38 minutes. That put him in the top 25% of all finishers, which is pretty unbelivable for a debut at that distance. What's even more remarkable is that I saw Scott, just a little over a year ago, when I was running the B&A Half-Marathon for the first time. Scott was running the full marathon that day, and we ran together for awhile, chatting about both having turned 30. We both complained about gaining weight and slowing down; Scott mentioned that he had not finished a marathon in under 5 hours since his 30th birthday. Just a few months later, Scott did his first sprint tri and suddenly morphed into a super-athlete. He followed the sprint with an olympic distance, in which he finished within the top 100. Somewhere in there he lost what looks like at least 30 pounds. Then, in October, he finished MCM in under 4 hours. Now, he's got the half-Iron under his belt and he is gunning for the full Ironman later this year. That is a total transformation in just a hair over a year. Incredible!