So it’s Friday before the marathon. Last day at work before the big day. The next time I see certain people I’ll have another marathon under my belt (assuming nothing goes wrong between now and mile 26). In true fashion, I’m planning my outfit, harassing my family and friends about where they’ll be on the route, trying to convince my boyfriend who is also my running partner to run as a bandit with me so I can run a better time, figuring out what I’m going to eat the night before, and 24332 other things. Stress. I realized I need to just chill out, which is extremely hard for me to do. I stumbled upon a very recent interview with Ryan Hall, an american professional marathoner running Boston this year, and figured I could gather some insight from him. I’ve watched hundreds of his youtube videos and anyone else who has knows he’s a very religious person. At the end of every run he says a prayer and has some inspiring quote which I’ve kind of always thought was nice but chuckled about. However, the closer I get to marathon day the more I find myself reading my horoscope and looking up inspirational quotes. I’m even interpreting my dreams and relating them to the marathon. No wonder this guy is religious, he feels like this all the time being a professional athlete. In his interview he says the following,
“Now, as the excitement of entering Boston awaits me, I am reverting to relishing. Sure, not everything in the weekend might go perfectly, or maybe it will, but nevertheless I will choose to relish the moment. I expect there to be boring times of sitting in the hotel room waiting, or nervous sleepless hours, or anxious moments on easy runs being preoccupied with how I am feeling, but I know that when I am 80 years old and looking back at the 2011 Boston Marathon I will miss all these aspects of what makes running a marathon running a marathon. We don’t run the marathon because its easy, we run a marathon because of its great challenge knowing Boylston Street awaits. But until we fly past Fenway and make that final left hand turn that leads to the end of our journey, there is nothing left to do but to relish this moment.”
I realize that all this stress is part of what I love about the marathon. It makes me feel superhuman to be able to work 40 hours, spend time with my family, close on a house, raise a puppy, oh and train for a marathon. No big deal. The truth is, without the craziness I wouldn’t be happy. So I am making a promise to my family and anyone who comes into contact with me this weekend to be calm and collected. I won’t freak out if I hear someone at Dunkin Donuts say “yea I heard it’s gonna be downpouring on Monday for the marathon”. Ok… maybe I will on the inside, but I will try to keep my cool and just relish these moments.
-Kristen
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