Be it resolved... Or, A Red Letter Day on New Year’s Eve

Mom knows.

It’s New Year’s Eve 2011, not even 9 p.m., and already I am beat. May lackadaisical ways of late came to collect today at the Run Your Ice Off Hardcore 5K in Kewanee. I did that distance once last week and once the week before. I did not run at all this week before the race. Compounding my struggle is the fact that I’ve not run longer than 3.1 miles or so in a while and my usual run is rarely a non-stop chase (pause for a photo here, backtrack to pick up a can or glove there).

So it is with no small measure of shame and self-disappointment that I confess to slowing to a walk for short distances (20-30 yards maybe) on three occasions today. Worse yet, my inexperience with races caused a wee bit of humiliation when I stopped running as I passed the 3-mile marker and the timer called out 29:30. “Keep going! You still have a tenth of a mile to go,” he shouted encouragingly.

Note the shirtless dude in the Santa hat.

D’Oh! I mean it should have been apparent I wasn’t at the finish because there were no mats at that point to collect the chip data. Double D’Oh! And Crap!

So I plugged on to the end and tried not to die as soon as I crossed the line. Hey, as I’m writing now I guess I succeeded in that anyway. You can tell by the self-portrait that I was exhausted afterward. In addition to the lack of training, I am carrying about 20 pounds more than I have for any other race I’ve run – a result of the reduced running and poor diet of late.

Therefore I have decided to break with tradition and make a resolution for 2012. And by doing so publicly, I reckon I’ll do a better job of sticking to it. Well, maybe not. Peer pressure doesn’t hold a lot of sway over me these days, though encouragement and threats from friends carry some weight.

Anywho, while I didn’t pick up any hardware today, I did grab a couple of street trophies. Yeah, despite my laziness and being out of shape, I thought I might place in my age division. Hey, it was in Kewanee. Alas, my running pal Carmen, who has run the Hardcore a couple of other times, said there were easily twice as many runners there as last year. The announcer said more than 400 hit the course.

A pretty, perky ponytail usually serves as good motivation.

Shortly out of the chute I spied with my little eye a tube of lip balm in the road. I did not retrieve it. Near the 1.5-mile turnaround I saw another, this one the squeeze kind, like Vaseline Lip Therapy. It, too, stayed where it lay. But in the final mile I noticed first a red letter W, the embroidered kind one might iron or stitch to a sweatshirt or jacket. I wasn’t quick enough or inclined, really, to stop for it. But, lo, a few dozen yards farther along lay two more red letters: U and N. Those I nabbed. I wish I had returned for the W.

The sticky backing was still tacky so I plastered NU on the front of my grey hoodie. Huh? Meaningless? Not so. My wise mother informed me later that nu is a Yiddish word meaning “so what?”

But wait, there’s more. According to DailyWriting.com under “The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Yiddish Words You Should Know”:

nu
A general word that calls for a reply. It can mean, “So?” “Huh?” “Well?” “What’s up?” or “Hello?”

And from JewFAQ.org under Judaism 101:

Nu (rhymes with "Jew")

An all-purpose word that doesn't really mean anything, like "well," "so" or "wassup?" I usually hear it as a prompt for a response or explanation. A friend of mine who worked for a Jewish history museum joked that they answered the phone "Jew mu, nu?" When someone takes too long to respond in an online chat or trails off in the middle of a thought, I might type "nu?" (are you still there? are you answering?) If someone says something that doesn't seem to make any sense, you might say, "nu?" (what's that supposed to mean?)

Well, there you have it. It’s always fun to learn something nu. Here endeth the lesson.

 

Thank God! I was beat, if you can't tell.

Today's Stats

Temp: 38 degrees F

Distance: 3.1 miles

Time: 30:18 (174^th out of 220 in male division, I think) Eventually results will be posted here.

Treasure: 2 stick-on/iron-on embroidered letters, red: N and U.

iPod Playlist (Running Mix)

Broken – Lifehouse

Catch My Disease – Ben Lee

Distance – Ryan Patrick

Heartbreak Warfare – John Mayer

I Will Follow You Into the Dark – Death Cab for Cutie

I Will Possess Your Heart – Death Cab for Cutie

Just Like a Pill - Pink