More Suffering

Got my copy of Spirit of the Marathon and watched it over the weekend. It got me thinking a lot about where I am, where I've been and where I'm going. Got me thinking about a lot of things. What I have come up with is pretty simple, and I can't say for sure that the movie had anything to do with anything other than getting me thinking.

This is what I've come up with. I'm not suffering enough. Oh, I've suffered each of the past two marathons. And what I believe is although my training is going well it's almost going too well. Perhaps I'm not suffering like I used to when I first got started. My training runs are sometimes tough, but perhaps they could be tougher. Maybe I've become stagnant and forgotten what it took to get to where I was just before I ran in Philadelphia.

With just under 5 weeks remaining before I go to Richmond to run I've got a little time left to prepare myself properly both physically and mentally. Of that I have no doubt. But one thing is also for certain. I can do better. I can suffer more during training so that my suffering on the day of these events and days after are not as bad. You pay one way or another. It's best to pay up front and that's the approach I'll take. I went hard this morning and gave myself a good start toward what it's going to take to get back to where I need to be. Obviously, I haven't paid enough of a price for Boston. As the mornings get darker and fall slowly creeps up on winter, I'll pay that price. On the roads, in the gym and wherever else I need to pay. Boston is earned and earned hard. Perhaps after Philly I thought it would be easy. Well, it's not. It's the furthest thing from easy in the world. And that's what's going to make it so sweet when I finally get there.