Marathon Season

When I ran my first and only marathon in 2002, I remember being exhilarated at having finished--7 months of training paid off, and I was able to get through it all injury free. Finishing is undoubtedly a big accomplishment. But there's also a part of you that can't help paying attention to your time. During the course of training, you get to know your body so well, that it's relatively easy to predict how you're going to perform. Based on my unshakable and steady pace, I had an ETA of about 4hrs. 30mins., but didn't actually get in until 5hrs. 11mins. This is where people get hooked on marathons because there's still a part of me that wants to beat that...just getting to the time that I expected to finish. That said, I like to keep up with marathon stories, and of late there have been no shortage:

• Stories like this and this remind me that a marathon is a grueling activity and remind me to just be glad I finished. I mean, if Lance Armstrong was like, Whoah. That was really hard, I feel a little validated.
  
• Stories like Katie Holmes' finish are a great read because heh. I beat her.