Commitment

When you’re in junior high you’re afraid to tell your friends you like a girl because… well you’re in junior high. They may not like her, it may not work out, she might dump you. At the end of the day you have to live with yourself, and you have to make a commitment with what you believe is right.

Now that I am a grown up, I don’t care what my friends think about my girlfriend, otherwise they wouldn’t be friends. So I have to set a goal and make the summit approach.

This long winded analogy is a way of saying I have been holding off from telling folks that I intend on running another marathon. Most likely Bayshore (again barring injury) on Memorial day weekend. I came in at about 3:40 for Chicago in 2004. I am shooting for about 3:30 if my body will let me do it. My training has ramped up since October and I have been running 25-30 miles a week since then. I need to ramp up to about 35-45 miles if not higher in the end. It’s the long runs that do you in, but that are ultimately what count. They are also the edge of the world in terms of physical endurance, your sanity. You see what you are made of out there. And like fox holes, there are no atheists at the 24 mile marker…

The thing about running is that unless you are superhuman, you know you won’t win. My son once asked me why I ran any of these races if I knew I wouldn’t win. I told him you have to race to see how fast you can go, to see what you’re made of. I hope to find I am made of sterner stuff than I think. Even if I come in at the same or worse than Chicago, it is still the attempt that means everything. If I don’t try, I will never forgive myself.