Eclectic Ramblings and Bite-Sized Whimsy

Running (Out of Time)

In two days, I will be running my first-ever Half Marathon.

Yes, I’ve been training since August.  I’m feeling better (if not faster) than I have in years.  Everything’s ready to go on this.

Yet I’m still super nervous.  Excited, but nervous.  I’m getting worried about the unfamiliar course, my lack of knowledge of the area and where to park pre-race, and my mind is plagued with all kinds of “what-if” scenarios.

I know once I’m out there, feet pounding the pavement while I glide forward mile after mile, that I’ll be ok.  I’ve got some paces and plans that should let me finish the first 10 miles with enough left in the tank (hopefully) to race the last 5k pretty hard.  I just need to get through these last two days without pulling my hair out and I’ll be golden.

As Tom Petty said, the waiting really is the hardest part.

Random Wikipedia Page of the Day: Taraxippus

The Taraxippus (plural: taraxippoi, “horse disturber”, Latin equorum conturbator) was a presence, either a ghost or a site, that frightened the horses during races at the Panhellenic Games.

At Olympia, the Taraxippos Olympios was identified variously. Some said it was the ghost of Oenomaus, harming chariot racers as he had harmed suitors of Hippodamia. Others say it was a tomb of Myrtilus, who caused the death of Oenomaus. Others said was the tomb of an Earth-born giant Ischenus. Pausanias lists several other persons whose ghosts might be responsible.

The race-course [of Olympia] has one side longer than the other, and on the longer side, which is a bank, there stands, at the passage through the bank, Taraxippos, the terror of the horses. It is in the shape of a round altar and there the horses are seized by a strong and sudden fear for no apparent reason, and from the fear comes a disturbance. The chariots generally crash and the charioteers are injured. Therefore the drivers offer sacrifices and pray to Taraxippos to be propitious to them.

At the Isthmian Games, the Taraxippos Isthmios was the ghost of Glaucus of Pontiae, who was torn apart by his own horses.

The Taraxippos Nemeios caused horses to panic during the Nemean Games:

At Nemea of the Argives there was no hero who harmed the horses, but above the turning-point of the chariots rose a rock, red in color, and the flash from it terrified the horses, just as though it had been fire. But the Taraxippos at Olympia is much worse for terrifying the horses.