Tramps Like Us...Baby We Were Born to Ruuuuuuuuuuuun...T Minus 3 Days

Blog title credit goes to Bruce Springsteen...you gotta love that song...

So last night I decided to watch Spirit of the Marathon.  Again.  I went to the theatre back when this came out and saw it both times it showed here in Houston.  Then right before I left for the NYC marathon (2008) someone gave me the DVD as a gift, and of course watched it prior to that marathon as well.  That was over a year ago now and since then I have watched it many times off and on.

But each and every time I watch it, it seems I take something more away from it than I previously did.

While I am certainly no Deena Kastor, or even any of those folks highlighted in the movie, there are pieces of each of them that are in fact...me.  For the most part I am talking about why I love this thing we call marathoning so much, why I do it sometimes, what it gives me on any given day in training, or there at the finish line on race day.

There are so many reasons why I have run in the past, and why I continue to do it...Sometimes its to overcome heartbreak, staying fit, extending my limits, because someone said I couldn't...

To put a goal in my life...to honor those who've passed...to lead...to inspire...to receive a sense of accomplishment that so far, nothing has been able to give me...

Sometimes its as if the finish line has the ability to give me a gift...maybe it does...wait...I know it does..

The emotions that the finish line brings are something of pride...and yes, eventually pain.

But more than that...the finish line, regardless of your speed, your background, your problems...that white line with a clock flashing red digital numbers, brings all of us together...

And myself, along with countless others, on Sunday, while we put everything we have into it...each of us will leave a bit of our souls out there ... somewhere on the pavement of some neighborhood you might never have ever been in before...but from now on, you will be a part of eternally.

The completion of a long journey, no matter how many times you may have done it before, nor how many times you may do it in the future..that completion is very powerful.  Power you wish you could bottle up for life...

During training I sometimes think of 100 reasons why I should quit, but then there is always that 1 reason that keeps you going...it may change along the way, sometimes on a daily basis...as I have said before, its not always the training that gets you there, but your guts...

All I know is that after todays little 3 miler, the last before the marathon on Sunday...is that on Sunday, among all other things, pain is inevitable...and everyone will experience it...

But also, everyone will... when we cross that line... no one can retract it...

I will have done it.
We will have done it.

And regardless of who is around you, it was all singular...And I for one will be reveling in that for some time...

Right up till its time to start doing it all over again...

To everyone that is running this weekend, who may be running in the Spring, Summer, Fall or next Winter, or whenever it will be...Remember one thing...

Your chest may contain a piece of paper with a number on it...but in reality, we are so much more than that.

We. Are. Runners.