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Supple Cow · 10-03-2008, 02:22 PM

This running business is going to do wonders for your attitude (among other things). I think that when we don't have any experience in certain things, the only people we know about who do them are the ones who are really good at it. I had no idea before I started training for my first marathon last year that lots of men and women embark on the challenge of a first marathon in their 40s, 50s and 60s. Most of them are never going to run a 4-hour marathon, but you know what? Most of them do finish. And they are often training religiously for at least six months before that can happen. Do you think of them as runners? I sure do.

Once I got deeper into the running community, I realized that yes, there are a lot of people of all ages that are faster than me, but does that mean I shouldn't do it? Wouldn't I rather do a thing and experience it for myself rather than sit something out for not being born with a freakish amount of talent? I think once I accepted that idea, other things just started falling into place and this "independent" behavior started showing itself all over the place naturally. You have already run more than most people run in their whole lives, and you just started a little while ago. I think that makes you a runner. But often it's our own internal critic that is the last to accept that we are what we are. Eventually, you will see that you are a runner too, and it won't make you feel weird to say it.

(I blame school and the whole "pick the most athletically talented kids for the team first" ordeal. I was never the best, but if the skills you needed to play those games were taken out of the whole team sport context, I probably would have been pretty good at a lot of those things. I just never gave myself a chance back then because school was wrought with social booby traps. Then, it was safer to sit things out because somebody else could do a better job at everything so I should just get out of the way. Fortunately, life is not like school and safer isn't automatically better. And I don't want to be out of the way! Out of whose way, anyway?)

Now that I have done a couple of marathons (very, very slowly), I sometimes wonder why I bother with such a painful distance. Really, anything after 13-14 miles is just punishment. But it's the fact that I can punish my body in that way and keep living that makes it a gift. It's that feeling you described exactly - if I can do this, I can do anything. You're not wrong about that, and you should look forward to the day you achieve it because you will find that you really can do anything and that preparing yourself for the marathon taught you how to do it.

10-03-2008, 02:22 PM	#9 (permalink)
Supple Cow Americow, the Beautiful Location: Washington, D.C.	This running business is going to do wonders for your attitude (among other things). I think that when we don't have any experience in certain things, the only people we know about who do them are the ones who are really good at it. I had no idea before I started training for my first marathon last year that lots of men and women embark on the challenge of a first marathon in their 40s, 50s and 60s. Most of them are never going to run a 4-hour marathon, but you know what? Most of them do finish. And they are often training religiously for at least six months before that can happen. Do you think of them as runners? I sure do. Once I got deeper into the running community, I realized that yes, there are a lot of people of all ages that are faster than me, but does that mean I shouldn't do it? Wouldn't I rather do a thing and experience it for myself rather than sit something out for not being born with a freakish amount of talent? I think once I accepted that idea, other things just started falling into place and this "independent" behavior started showing itself all over the place naturally. You have already run more than most people run in their whole lives, and you just started a little while ago. I think that makes you a runner. But often it's our own internal critic that is the last to accept that we are what we are. Eventually, you will see that you are a runner too, and it won't make you feel weird to say it. (I blame school and the whole "pick the most athletically talented kids for the team first" ordeal. I was never the best, but if the skills you needed to play those games were taken out of the whole team sport context, I probably would have been pretty good at a lot of those things. I just never gave myself a chance back then because school was wrought with social booby traps. Then, it was safer to sit things out because somebody else could do a better job at everything so I should just get out of the way. Fortunately, life is not like school and safer isn't automatically better. And I don't want to be out of the way! Out of whose way, anyway?) Now that I have done a couple of marathons (very, very slowly), I sometimes wonder why I bother with such a painful distance. Really, anything after 13-14 miles is just punishment. But it's the fact that I can punish my body in that way and keep living that makes it a gift. It's that feeling you described exactly - if I can do this, I can do anything. You're not wrong about that, and you should look forward to the day you achieve it because you will find that you really can do anything and that preparing yourself for the marathon taught you how to do it. __________________ "I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." (Michael Jordan)