I do not take on challenges lightly. A risk-adverse planner by nature, I don't set goals I don't think I can meet. I don't make arguments I do not think I can win. I don't ski down a hill so steep I might fall. And I sure as hell don’t sign up for a race I don’t think I can finish. This life approach is entrenched with the need for safety and surety, knowing that I can and do push myself but only so far. Generally, I have to say it has been a pretty satisfying approach to life. That is, until I start wondering what if …?
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Running on Envy
Envy. One of the seven deadly sins. Our culture promotes it, and our conscience fights against it. But there are times when envy just sucks you in, and this week the Boston Marathon was my undoing. The more I read about it, watched coverage of it, and was pinged on social media with happy pictures of it, the more I wanted a piece of Boston for myself.
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A Runner's High and Runner's Low
To most, Tuesday was just another average weekday. I, on the other hand, looked forward to Tuesday with all of the anxious anticipation of a small child counting the days until Christmas. Tuesday was the NYC Marathon lottery. I have been waiting for this day since the moment I crossed the 2015 finish line in Central Park, and by the time it finally arrived I had all but blocked out the possibility that I might not get lucky again this year. Simply, when you want something so badly, it is almost unfathomable to think that you might not get it.
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Running (and Life) Lessons We Can Learn from the Elites
Saturday morning, this was the exchange in our family room:
Husband: What are you doing?
Me: Setting up the TV and DVR to watch the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials.
Husband: Why?
Me: Because I’m going to watch them. (Duh).
Husband: You are going to watch all of it?
Me: Yes. (Again, duh).
Husband: You are going to watch people run 26.2 miles?
Me: Yes.
Confession: I not only watched the full marathon coverage, I watched some of it twice.
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A New Year: Time to Let Go of All that Was Left Undone in the Last
By almost any account, this is a time to look ahead toward a year that is shiny and new, full of promise and expectation, with yet-unbroken resolutions. But before I bound ahead into 2016, I feel compelled to look back, with some degree of guilt, about items that did not get checked off in 2015.
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NYC Marathon: Race Report (Spoiler Alert: It Was AWESOME)
Today is the one-week anniversary of my inaugural NYC Marathon, and I have spent the better part of my time since trying to summon the ability to describe the race in a way that does the experience justice. Going into the race, I clearly recognized that it would be big. I watched race videos, I read the runners blogs, I visited New York in the spring and ran Central Park. But still nothing – nothing – prepared me for the tidal wave of emotion and energy that surrounded this marathon.
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