I love when people get excited about things they really really care about. Everything is the most fun for everyone when people get into what they’re doing or watching! (Superlative count in that sentence: 3, and I’m not ashamed.)
For example, on Saturday night, SpeedyKate, LOTR-Emily, her BF, and I went to a DC United soccer game. All of us like soccer, have played it at some point, and enjoy watching it; however, compared to the super-fans in front of us, we were just casual bystanders. But because they were so excited – literally shaking the stands, chanting, flag-waving, and throwing $10 beverages in the air when United scored – we got pretty amped up too. DC United beat Columbus Crew 1-0, and it was a really fun Saturday night!
The soccer game was an example of others’ excitement affecting me…but Olympic Track and Field, well now that’s a thing that I get ridiculously excited about. All the swimming/gymnastics/etc. over the first week of the Games has been good warm-up, but now the real Olympics (for me) have started and it is important that I see it all.
Did you watch the Men’s 10k on Saturday afternoon? The moment when Mo Farah (UK) won the race, turned, and realized that his training partner Galen Rupp (USA) got the silver was hands-down my favorite Olympic moment to date. SpeedyKate and I were literally screaming at our TV for the last 800m of that race.
I’m always happy to spread the sports-love and explain running/sports/Olympics to any friend or co-worker who asks, but there’s something super-awesome about watching a marathon in a room full of legit marathoners. Everyone knows what they’re talking about and can connect to the experience – it was fun.
I took that London marathon inspiration and went for my own rainy-day run on Sunday night. It definitely wasn’t 26.2 miles, but 10.4 is pretty marathon-ish for me at this point and running in the rain is glorious!
