And so, I run

My wife knew that I was going to run the Portland Marathon in the Fall. She is fine with that and supports my running in every way. But there is one teensy detail about the marathon I didn’t share with her… it is the day before our anniversary. Doh! Now, I won’t say I am in the doghouse… but she certainly wasn’t happy about the timing.

“So what do you want to do for our anniversary honey?”

“Hobble around like an arthritic 80 year old?”

Now… I am not saying that crossing the finish line of a marathon isn’t a wonderful awe-inspiring experience, but shortly after that experience… let’s just say romance isn’t the first thing crossing my mind. The desire to crawl into a fetal position and sleep for a week is up there.

Good Lord. What other sport do you get in shape for half a year just to cripple yourself? And about this ‘in-shapness’. Half the time even during training I am nursing some body part that isn’t working just right and am forced to down Ibuprofen just to get through my day like an able bodied person. =) Oh to be young again… like in my 30’s. LOL.

It is in spite of all of this that the marathon is still a most worthy endeavor. It may be a bit like a mirage in the desert enticing me on and when I finally get there, what was driving me is gone. The vision though… has kept me alive, healthy and happy, for the most part, through the journey. The finish line pulls me alone like a long lost loved one. The reason it may seem like a mirage, is that what I get out of the accomplishment of a marathon, isn’t what I expected. When the mirage dries up, I am not left in the middle of desert, but the glow of an accomplishment that makes other things I thought impossible, doable. You can’t put that in a pill and sell it.

And so, I run.