Just Me

With a little over five days until my 5th marathon I thought I would post something I've thought about for awhile now. I've alluded to it in previous postings, but for some reason as I prepare to head out on this journey again I can't help but think of it more and more the closer I get.

If you're reading this and you've run a marathon or a road race of any kind or you're a runner you might understand this. If you're not a runner this may be hard for you to fully understand. But the bottom line in a marathon or races of longer distances is that it's just you.

One of the biggest lessons I have learned since I started running is that it's just me out there. I may be running it with possibly thousands of others but for them, it's just them. In my athletic career, which is ever evolving I thought that golf was perhaps the toughest sport because it's something that you do by yourself and it is by far a very technical sport. But I will draw a similarity to running. It is a very individual thing. It is also very technical. A minor error in running can lead to disaster. In golf there is always the next shot. In marathoning, you might not be able to take that next shot for weeks or months.

So as I make my final preparations this week; most of it is mental at this point, I go with the total understanding that it's just me. I have only myself to rely on or lean on when times get tough out there. It's o.k. Almost all of my training has been done under the same conditions. Nobody forced me out on the roads, or checked the status of my training and there was nobody there to push me when I got tired. Except for me. I think that's why when I qualify for Boston it will be the most satisfying thing I will have ever done in my life. And when it happens, short of Becky I won't expect many to celebrate the accomplishment with me because it won't mean as much to them as it does me. It's o.k. too. After all, it is just me. Just me training. Just me running. And just me qualifying. Why not just me celebrating?