reflections on the marathon

It's been about a month since the LA Marathon. I thought I'd give myself some time to think about whether or not I wanted to do it again...By now the blisters have healed and the memory of the pain has long since faded, but do I really want to put myself through that again?

I've thought about the grueling 26.2 miles and the mental roller coaster ride of wanting to quit when it seemed like I had nothing left, and the reward of perseverance that came in the form of mini-celebrations at each mile marker and the exaltation of crossing the finish line at the end.

While the rational part of my brain is screaming "AGAIN?! Are you NUTS?", there is still a part of me who wants to do it again for a better finishing time. Maybe with the hindsight of experience and consistent training, this time around will be a little different. I won't go as far as saying "easier" because nothing about 26.2 miles is easy, but maybe I'm getting hooked by this running bug after all.

A little bit of history...the marathon is actually named after a city in Greece. According to the Greek legend, Pheidippides was a soldier who ran the 27 miles between the Greek cities of Marathon and Athens to report that the Persians had been defeated, and soon after making his announcement he died of exhaustion. Hmmmm...maybe that's why we only run 26.2 instead of 27? I don't have an answer for those people who run ultra marathons--they're superhuman or something.

But it looks like I'm in for LA 09'...we'll see if that holds...