Dream big

Awhile back, my wife made a comment about when I set goals, I sure do set big ones. I like to have carrots dangling out there for me, and trying to run a marathon is certainly one big (strange) carrot. It is strange in that when I finally catch it, I am not really sure what I will have. I will have invested about 160 hours of training by the time I run the Eugene marathon. One hundred and sixty sometimes grueling... sometimes exhausting hours. At the moment I cross the finished line and
that carrot is in my grasp and I get to feel and check it out to see what I really have... what will it be?

I blame this quest on my childhood role models; Charlie Brown, Gilligan, and maybe Fred Flintstone and even Coyote. Think about it... each of them in them in their own way... was never allowed to cross their finish line. Charlie Brown always tried to kick the football... each time he actually thinks he is going to get to kick it... but each time it is yanked away. And then there is the well-intentioned Gilligan, always trapped on that damn Island... every episode ruining their rescue or chance for escaping. I watched it week after week thinking that maybe...just MAYBE they will get off the dang thing, but really knowing it was an exercise in futility. And of course, the not so well-intentioned Fred Flintstone. He was a bit of an unsavory character, but always scheming for a way to get ahead and yet somehow Barney or fate would ALWAYS ruin his plan, and by then end of the episode, he'd
end up back where he started.

So is it any wonder that I have a desire to grab that carrot? That is a
lot of childhood frustration right there... perhaps I am the champion
for all of the losing icons of my childhood. =)

Today was a mid-week 8 miler. I am not sure what my pace was... but I was taking it easy since I a still sore from the race this past weekend. Probably around 8:35 though.