With a Little Help from a Four-Footed Friend...

The past week has been utterly miserable.

After last weekend's running "double whammy," I received the illness version of the same thing.

Yes, once again...the dreaded head cold that turned into a sinus infection --- one that I am still trying to kick even as I type this entry.

I'm afraid that the very busy work week, including extended evening hours, leading up to the races last weekend proved to be too much for me. That, and being in the same vicinity of roughly 800 teenage students, most of whom are sick themselves (everything from colds to H1N1), also wore me down.

The result? Five days without running one bit.

This was tough for me, because in the past I've taken the "I'll-just-run-the-illness-out-of-me" approach, which has worked wonders --- in terms of making me more ill and for a longer period of time. So it took a lot of self-discipline, but I made myself rest whenever I could around work. As difficult as it was to do, I didn't run at all during last week. This had me feeling really down, especially as I had been running well and had been dreaming of getting a PR at the upcoming Turkey Trot.

I felt well enough to get a slow (very,very slow) run in Saturday afternoon. I barely made it 3 miles and had an asthma attack afterwards to boot. I felt like my legs weighed a ton, and I was going nowhere. I was thoroughly discouraged, and wondering if I should even bother to continue to try. Maybe I'd been too sick. Maybe there wasn't enough time to re-train before the Trot anyway.

And then I saw something Saturday evening that made me think differently.

I am a horsewoman --- strange, I know, for someone who lives on a city border, but I've ridden since I was eleven, and most recently have had the chance to ride English style and jump horses over fences. I absolutely love these beautiful creatures, and to see them run is, to me, breathtaking. I've watched horse racing since I was a little girl, and was always thrilled to see these gorgeous animals --- true athletes --- who were as competitive as a human when it came to winning a race. I've had my share of issues with the horse racing industry in the last few years, and I've gotten away from watching many of the big races. But I happened to be changing TV channels last night and caught the Breeders' Cup Classic, the biggest and final championship horse race of the year. And I'm so very glad I did.

The big story here? A five year old mare named Zenyatta was going up against an all-male field, one of the best in a long time. The talent here was awesome, and there was a great deal of skepticism from critics about whether the mare, despite being 13-0 in career starts, would have the skill to even keep up with the males. This mare faced a series of challenges --- the odds, the crowd of 58,000 screaming people, a fellow horse who freaked out in the starting gate and had to be scratched from the race, being re-loaded into the starting gate, and then...

The gates opened, and every horse plunged through out onto the track.

Except for Zenyatta.

Her jockey, Mike Smith, later stated that she just didn't go. He had to work to urge her out of the gate and then, once she started running, she settled down. But she was dead last.

It looked as if Zenyatta would be a non-factor in the biggest race of the year...until near the final turn, where Smith kept his mare along the inside railing to conserve ground, and then made a move at the final turn for home. One spot opened up between horses, but it suddenly disappeared as quickly as it had been created. Smith had but one choice --- to take his mare wide out around all the other horses.

He did, and Zenyatta responded by blowing past every horse in that field, and in dramatic style, won by a length (you can watch video of the race here).

I found myself jumping up and down in my living room, and I was further surprised by the fact that I was a bit teary-eyed afterwards. But what a horse! What an athlete! And what an inspiration.

I went out the door today and put in a solid five and half miles. I'm still not pushing it, just to be on the cautious side, but I'm also not carrying around a defeatist attitude either. You see, a horse taught me something important yesterday --- sometimes it feels like you're just stuck in the gate, going nowhere, but if you have faith in your ability and in your training, and if in your heart you know you can do it, then eventually you will.

I guess I just needed to hear that from someone who wasn't human. Thank you, Zenyatta!