RACE DAY Musings

Forgot to mention in my last post how RACE DAY actually turned out. My cryptic email messages and in-class announcements did their job: Spinners got really excited about the day. There was a buzz around Pottruck Gym which reached new participants and my rather surprised boss. One of my Regulars even said that she'd been talking about it to her parents and was bursting with anticipation all week long. Said Regular and two others also decided to make 'costumes' for the occasion. I was completely tickled to see their "NINA IS MY HERO" jerseys. I myself bought a racing outfit (NB: I bought a triathlon outfit that would help motivate me to sign up for my first triathlon in August...I mean, if I have the duds, I HAVE to sign up, right?). My race attire matched my neon green sweatband, which I wore 80's style across my forehead. In block letters, you could easily see my "TEAM" and "MIND/BODY" catch phrases. Did I mention that I stayed up until 2AM the night before making those bands? Crafts take so much longer than you think... It was just as well the bands took me so long, I was so excited I couldn't sleep.

The hours leading up to class passed in a whirl wind. Greg had agreed to meet me an hour before class to help me set up the bikes, etc...however, the day before he had a huge exam and slept through his alarm. He did make it in time for the event, but this left me alone to move all the bikes into a square, hang streamers, and set up the cards and photos. Fortunately Cecilia and others arrived 35 minutes early to claim their spots and I was able to delegate the duties. By T-30 minutes, there was already a bulging line out the door. It was up to me to take charge, make sure people stayed outside and then pass out the right bands to the right people.

Slight difficulties arose because this wasn't a separate, official event. It was first come, first serve; so a complete Newbie could have show up and come into this situation. For my Regulars, I had specific bands that I wanted to give them. For instance, I wanted Dorsey to have the "SexyBack" band because we had worked on posture technique together. To Linds, the "Endure" band because a) she's made so much improvement since she started last year and b) she said it was her favorite of my catch phrases. Cecilia: "Breathe" because she's really into yoga...Hope: "Faith", obviously you can't have Faith (the second song) without Hope (made connection and joke during the track). Anyways, the list goes on. I had made up a list of all the people that I knew, and hoped, would come to class and what power words I associated with them. The tricky part was that I didn't know for certain who was coming. And I was hoping that no one new showed up that day and took the spot of a Regular.

I, myself, felt the same feelings and anticipatory-nerves that I'd feel before any race (and I was a little nervous about whether people would show up)--which is exactly what I was going for! The Race went off without a hitch and I made my usual corny jokes. For instance, during "Sex Bomb," which was popular during my first semester in France, I told the story of how this French guy commented, "Nina, normally you are like ice, but tonight you are on fire!" I then followed with a "Fire it up, Team!" Also, I had a real blast beating on the cowbell during "Phantom of The Opera" to signify pace changes.

*The feedback to me personally and to my boss, Katie, was so positive that Katie has agreed to make TWO OFFICIAL RACE DAYS this next semester! Now we can have a sign up sheet and a separate time just for this event! I have so many ideas already on how to make it better and run more smoothly.

In any case, the goal of this class was two-fold. A) To test how your training is going & B) To keep people excited about working out. Definitely accomplished both of those tasks. Success!

Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you to all the Regulars who make planning spin classes such a delight!