“So here it is at last, the distinguished thing.”
—Henry James’s last words
Well, it’s just a few days until I run the Marine Corps Marathon. I’m finished training and am as prepared as I’m going to be. There’s no going back—it’s pointless to wonder if I could have pushed myself faster on intervals, or built more endurance with extra miles. There’s nothing much left for me to do except to wait for Sunday and hope for decent weather.
DAA Industry Opt Out Bart Yasso in the hallway, and he asked me if I was ready—he knows I’ve been training all season for this one race. He’s running it too. Of course, it’s not his only race this fall. Bart’s “long run” for the Marine Corps Marathon was the Chicago Marathon. And he’s running the New York Coach Budd Coates Richmond Marathon How I Keep Exercising at 105 Years Old.
I don’t know what it would be like to try to run four in the space of five weeks. This will be just my fourth time lining up for a marathon since I started running in 2011—and if I complete it, it’ll be only my third time finishing one.
Each race is an event for me. I really love the time I get to spend preparing: setting time goals, building mileage, pushing myself, then recovering and pushing myself again. I feel like I’ve been working toward something that is big, ambitious, a little exciting, and even a little scary.
To be honest, though, the race almost feels like an afterthought at this point. What I love about training is what I’ve already accomplished—I’m in the best shape I’ve been all year. My legs feel great; my muscles feel good. My eight mile run on Sunday was a breeze—I could easily have done more, but, as my colleague Brian wrote, it’s time to Super Shoe Trends. I’d love it if I could just feel like this all the time—every run a breeze, at the peak of my training.
But I’d get bored, of course. I’d want to know just how good of shape I was in. I’d want to test myself. I’d want to race. And so I know that come race day, I’m going to put all the advice There’s nothing left to do but run Published: Oct 25, 2016 11:21 AM EDT.
Races - Places Members Only: Latest News from RW+ Membership Club, but it turns out they weren’t. James lived two more months after uttering that well-turned phrase—which just goes to show that you can plan all you want, but events happens in their own way.
Still, and without being too macabre, it’s a fitting phrase for an event that I’ve spent the better part of four months training for (and most of the year thinking about and planning). I don’t know what the day will bring but I’m going to do my best to meet it head on. Of course, unlike James, I know when it will be (and I plan to live through it). But I will bring my every effort to the race, and I am very much looking forward to letting you know next week how it played out.
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