Summary of qualifications…

As May 29 draws closer, I find myself getting nervous about my upcoming half marathon pace bunny gig.  After all, those ears come with a lot of responsibility! There will be people counting on me: runners trying desperately to stay as far ahead of me as possible; runners trying to stay with me; runners trying to keep me in sight, catch up to me and pass me.

My task: run as close (within one minute) to 2 hours, 45 minutes as possible without going over.  The goal will be displayed clearly on my ears, and on the sign that I will carry the whole way – there will be no hiding.

Of course, I do have some past bunny experience, beginning from a very young age.  My first bunny-gig was in the end of year Nursery School play – I was a bunny in our production of Goldilocks and the Three Bears – clearly not a title role, but at least it was a speaking part. My job was to hop halfway across the stage, greet Goldilocks with a cheerful “good morning!” before hopping off the other side.  I was 3 or 4 years old, and my hopping much more resembled that of a frog – so much so that after saying my line as rehearsed, I addressed the audience and informed them that hopping was hard work.

My second bunny gig didn’t go much better, but at least I had the title role.  Since I had the suit, my mom, who was a Beaver Leader, asked if I would dress up and attend the Beaver party to play the Easter Bunny and deliver eggs.  Proud as can be, I donned my pink bunny suit, picked up my 6-quart peach basket decorated with foil and bows, and gave it a go.  I was all of four at the time, so my memory is a little vague, but here’s how I think it went:  the boys sat in a circle with their heads down, “baskets” (consisting of Styrofoam cups decorated with marker and stickers) behind them, as I carefully went around the circle placing a single jelly bean in each – I had to make sure there were enough to go around, after all!  I became quite indignant with the boys who weren’t following the rules, however, stopping often to scold them for peeking – I suppose they’re lucky I didn’t resort to decking them with my basket.  I remember my mom thinking it was taking entirely too long, so she helped me out (read: grabbed huge handfuls of candy to distribute while I focussed on keeping the boys in line).

By the time I next played a bunny, I had gotten substantially better at it. I don’t know how old I was, but the same bunny suit still fit, however, by this time I had been taught proper “bunny hop” technique in a figure skating context.  This time I was a woodland animal in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves – demoted again from a title role, however, I can’t complain because Snow White was at least 10 years older than me and a much more experienced skater, unlike Goldilocks who had been selected for the role solely based on her blond hair (I’m not bitter – after all, if I hadn’t played a bunny then, I’d never have had the opportunity to practice as the Easter Bunny, and without that suit,  I’d have likely ended up being the unlucky kid who had to play a skunk in the Snow White sketch). Anyway, as far as I remember, the skating bunny was by far my best performance to that point.

Now, it’s been a very long time since I’ve had a bunny gig.  The old pink bunny suit did come out a few times for Halloween, and I have been known to don a pair of ears around Easter, but I don’t think I have done any serious bunny work since I outgrew the pink suit.

I have, however, done some running since then.  Hopefully the bunny part will come back to me when I don the ears!