Sunday, April 10, 2016

Putting Your Boston into prospective

You worked your tail off.  You ran 600 miles, missed sleep, deprived your family, napped on the job, missed ballgames and basically did what you had to do to accomplish one of the major life-experiences:  you qualified for The Boston Marathon!  That was more than a year ago...now you find yourself in that same familiar, but unpleasant situation again, and you are more stressed than ever. The reason?  Because you have made up your mind that you MUST DO WELL IN BOSTON....and by golly, you are going to do whatever it takes to accomplish that.....

Let me make a case for little different thought pattern.


I say Boston is made up of two journeys, each one extremely memorable.  The first is the one you have already done, that being the physical and emotional journey of qualifying.  That, in itself, is a HUGE accomplishment for us and most can vividly recall stepping across that finish line at some marathon and realizing what you had just done.    You worked so hard....and you made it.  For some of us, like me, that journey took 10 years.

Now, it's time for the second journey....that of actually running the Boston Marathon. While we all want to do well in Boston, I really think it's far more important to have fun and enjoy it than it is to cut off that extra 3 min, 8 min, or whatever your goal is.

You have accomplished much of the Boston Marathon ....you have qualified and you are making the trip.  There are only a couple of things left.....the first is to run the race...but the most important is to ENJOY the occasion.  Don't get caught up with trying to over think this thing and make it more complicated than it is.  While we would all like to "run a good race in Boston", it's far more important that we drink it all in and enjoy it.  3 minutes....7 minutes....isn't going to matter in 10 years.  While some really do well there (my friend, Big Foot always does), most, like me, find it adds 8-10 minutes to our normal time.  While you may not see this occur, most will, so don't worry about it.  You have NOTHING to prove....you have BQed and there is nothing left for you to prove other than to go, enjoy the experience as well as enjoying running the race.

So, the time to get serious is when you are trying to BQ, not when you are going to Boston. Boston is the time to make memories, enjoy your family/friends and see some fantastic sights, eat some great food...oh yeah, and run a race.

Just remember that the joy is not when your trip is over and you arrive at the station....the joy is in the ride.  Enjoy the journey!!

Oh, and when you return home and write down your Boston story, let us share it along with the 165 others we have on BostonLog.com.

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