Getting Into The Spirit...

Of St. Louis and its glorious half-marathon...

23 pounds lighter. Four sizes smaller. Many weights stronger. 16 weeks of training down. Five weeks to go. With a competitive eye for Chicago, New York, and my dear friends, it’s no secret I lust for Boston. Last week I successfully made a continuous mile seven. Let's push it up to thirteen miles before training is up. But that’s not to say that I haven’t endured immense loads of pain and obstacles getting to this point of physical satisfaction…

There’s something to be said for taking a thing one knows and likes out of curiosity, something which could be enjoyed, and initiating oneself to the point of enjoying it.

I do not by any means have a natural skill for running endurance, but I have set myself on the goals my interests have in mind. I would think there is nothing more mind-blowing, nor more edifying than to achieve what one might naturally think to be impossible in spite of one’s current situation. In my early weeks of training I had hefty bouts of shin splints, even to the point where I thought I may have minor stress fractures. Having had chronic bronchitis and pneumonia as an infant thus left me with asthma now which has surely been a consistent obstacle through this winter’s annoyingly cold weather. Additionally, extensive over-pronation of my right foot leading to subsequent hip problems (which may actually have been a mild case of iliotibial band syndrome) has been an issue I have had to keep in mind. Nonetheless, I would argue for running’s merits – despite all the pain, since it is immensely satisfying as a physical discipline— or more generally for me as a method of carrying out an interest for what seemed to me at first impossible. But really, this principle could apply to many things besides running.

There’s nothing comparable to challenging oneself despite known or unknown obstacles until the uncertainty of success is penetrated so intensely and with a motivation such that the existence of any inital uncertainties are obliterated in the face of victory. Let's just hope the last few weeks of training go as well as my first!

Oh, and many thanks to the help of my ipod, Dane Cook's Retaliation CD, and my dog too. ;-)