I discovered I have a bit of a knack for drawing people in and creating random conversation; I was surprised by that as small talk has never really been my thing, and I can't really say I enjoyed it - but it was interesting. I got *really* good at figuring out who rides by how they looked at the display - even if they didn't want to seem interested, a horse-person's eyes will be light up at any unexpected horse-related item. It's an addiction, and those with it are fairly easy to spot. Like recognizes like I guess *g* By the end I was about 98% in my guesses (yes I was playing this game with myself - have to pass the hours somehow!)
Did get to have some fairly interesting conversations with other horse people though, so that's always fun. And met a fair number who seemed interested in lessons, which'd be great. Also some interesting conversations with people who weren't interested in riding but were interested in the idea of cross training between riding and running (these conversations usually started with "why are you here?" hahaha). The first time I spun that I could feel the bs level rising to a point I was sure a light would go on over my head, but by the end I was even believing it *g*
People watching was somewhat entertaining. I was highly amused by the number of people who felt the need to snap a picture of my QR code despite clearly having less than no interest in riding or lessons. There were also a few passing through who I would say are highly unlikely to be participating in the event. Sort of made me wonder what they were doing there (picking up for somebody else?) and how they felt about it... Out of place? Unaware? Aware but confident enough not to care in the slightest? Then there were the people we saw like 8 times. Doing laps? Really? The place just isn't that big or enthralling... Once normal, twice even ok, but more than that?
And then there's me... hahaha so there was a booth not far from mine that had a great theater-style banner that seemed to be as out of place as mine was. So I wandered over at one point when my mum kindly came and covered my booth for me. A Midsummer Night's Run -- complete with various Shakespeare quotes. Ok kinda kewl - thought well maybe if they have a 5k I'll sign up and do that again. But I looked and no - only 15 or 30. A little excessive. Did love the t-shirts and the jackets though. Esp the jackets.
So the next morning I'm chatting with the girl manning the booth next to mine and she disappears for a minute and returns with one of the jackets. Even nicer on close up inspection. "They're free if you sign up today." Ummmm really? "Yeah, it's a really good race; it's fun and the route is really pretty." So, me being me, randomly decides 15k isn't *that* much more than 5. Sure I can do that by August (have I mentioned the last time I did 5 was almost 2 yrs ago and I haven't run more than 10 consecutive steps since then???). Cause really, I, who generally couldn't care less about clothing of any sort, wanted that jacket. So yeah, somehow I ended up signing up to run 15k in Aug. It'd better stop raining soon cause I'm definitely not dedicated enough to train in the rain! hahaha And even though there was a 1k WALK option that also would've gotten me a jacket, I couldn't possibly do things the easy way. Sheesh. Where the challenge in that?
BUT - on the plus side, I didn't sign up for a marathon and I didn't sign up for anything I'd have to leave the country for (both of those were together actually :) - at least I kept the unrealistic projects to the "potentially feasible" realm. This is progress over my usual random decisions (anybody remember "I think I'll go to school in Australia next term"? Or how bout "I'm moving to Vermont next week.") hahah So I'm off to google training schedules. Wish me luck!
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