My favorite self-elected, very semi-part-time profession is to be a RMOH. For the uninitiated, this stands for “Running Maid of Honor”. I’ve only done it twice, but it makes me silly happy and my services are available for anyone who needs an enthusiastic but not super fast pacer and can tolerate my “yapping”, as my better half so diplomatically calls it.
My first go/run as RMOH was the 2019 Pac Crest Marathon with Devin, my work brother. This two-loop marathon conveniently used the same course as the half marathon, so I registered for the half and ran it with Devin as his second loop of the marathon. A life-long endurance athlete, Dev was a total champ at the distance and placed 2nd in his age group. My main duties were trying to keep up with him for the first half of the half, then helping him stay on a competitive pace for the second half of the half, which sadly for him was much harder as it was the final quarter of his marathon. I also (oh pre-COVID, such an innocent time) cajoled the many, many civilians we passed on the route to cheer for him as we went by. As Dan always says, “you scare people”, which comes in handy when you need perfect strangers to root for your tired buddy.
I had the great privilege of donning the RMOH cap again a few weeks ago for Heather’s first half marathon, the super scenic Happy Girls Sisters Trail Half. Heather trained like fearless warrior through cold winter/spring conditions and hot summer days, often while pushing a lot of pounds of children IN A STROLLER ON TRAIL (if that doesn’t make you a strength badass, nothing will), and went from not running at all only mere months ago to running 13.1 miles on trail. Which is a pretty impressive progression and inspired me many days to get my own butt out there, because I knew Heather was getting her miles in. For this event I worked my friendly paparazzi skills and got lots of action shots of my runner on the course:
So…if you’re looking for a supportive racing buddy who resembles the love child of Tigger and Chris Traeger from “Parks and Recreation”…call me.
Trust me, it’s way more fun than a wedding.
