Everybody Has a Story
Monday, April 16 was the Boston Marathon.
Many were monitoring or watching the race on the athlete tracker or other social media, and keeping up with the weather conditions. It sounded like the weather made the race a challenge to say the least.
Qualifying and running the Boston Marathon is a unique challenge. Once you have ran the Boston Marathon, you are part of a club of sorts and will always remember it and probably compare the current race to your past experience.
The day after the race I was talking with a famed Boston Marathon veteran, Michael LaCombe. He recalled his experience back to 1975 when he ran it without mile markers (I guess they had not invented them yet). Heidi chimed in saying "Last year was the toughest for me. It was almost 80. I started cramping at mile 14. All I could do was smile and gut it out for the rest of the day". I got to run the race for the first time in 2007, when they had a nor'easter blowing really hard and they almost cancelled the race.
Some people are good enough they can show up and run a marathon and qualify. No bid deal for them. Most others the process of getting there is a huge challenge mentally, physically, emotionally and financially.
For me the first difficulty was decided to try to qualify. My buddies challenged me by bribing me with cash. I refused calling it a "Marapain". After 3 months of deliberation I accepted the challenge thinking it would be difficult but doable.
5 failed attempts later I was so discouraged, I quit running! But they were not failed attempts. Ultimately when I did qualify, I saw the prior attempts as training.
I was then able to use what I learned to accomplish even larger challenges.
Many say they cannot run the marathon for a whole bunch of reasons. Good reasons too. But, there are 30 thousand people each year who say they can and do. Some don't just have bad knees, but have no knees at all.
So, are you up for a huge challenge? you may want to consider qualifying and running the Boston Marathon. It is not easy.
You too can do it IF you decided you wanted to, executed a plan with tons of WILL POWER, persistance, determination and painful grit. Do you have what it takes? Some do, some don't...It's OK if you don't. People will still like you.
Congratulations to those of you who completed the challenge!
Many were monitoring or watching the race on the athlete tracker or other social media, and keeping up with the weather conditions. It sounded like the weather made the race a challenge to say the least.
Qualifying and running the Boston Marathon is a unique challenge. Once you have ran the Boston Marathon, you are part of a club of sorts and will always remember it and probably compare the current race to your past experience.
The day after the race I was talking with a famed Boston Marathon veteran, Michael LaCombe. He recalled his experience back to 1975 when he ran it without mile markers (I guess they had not invented them yet). Heidi chimed in saying "Last year was the toughest for me. It was almost 80. I started cramping at mile 14. All I could do was smile and gut it out for the rest of the day". I got to run the race for the first time in 2007, when they had a nor'easter blowing really hard and they almost cancelled the race.
Some people are good enough they can show up and run a marathon and qualify. No bid deal for them. Most others the process of getting there is a huge challenge mentally, physically, emotionally and financially.
For me the first difficulty was decided to try to qualify. My buddies challenged me by bribing me with cash. I refused calling it a "Marapain". After 3 months of deliberation I accepted the challenge thinking it would be difficult but doable.
5 failed attempts later I was so discouraged, I quit running! But they were not failed attempts. Ultimately when I did qualify, I saw the prior attempts as training.
I was then able to use what I learned to accomplish even larger challenges.
Many say they cannot run the marathon for a whole bunch of reasons. Good reasons too. But, there are 30 thousand people each year who say they can and do. Some don't just have bad knees, but have no knees at all.
So, are you up for a huge challenge? you may want to consider qualifying and running the Boston Marathon. It is not easy.
You too can do it IF you decided you wanted to, executed a plan with tons of WILL POWER, persistance, determination and painful grit. Do you have what it takes? Some do, some don't...It's OK if you don't. People will still like you.
Congratulations to those of you who completed the challenge!
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