Finding Inspiration just may be 2 hrs 51 minutes 12 seconds away

While I know that I should be going to bed at this moment, I am still thinking through what transpired today.

I sat in my office this morning and awaited the first splits from Boston. Avi, Tom, Patty, and Peter K were all running the Boston Marathon. Of all of these 4 people - I had spent the most time with Avi, and had the chance to ride alongside him for his 21 mile run last month, but more of that to come later. Shirking a little of my professional responsibility, and feeling like a 5th grader, I had the window with the tracking set up for the 4 of them in the race, and found myself refreshing a lot more than I should have probably been, but there's something about big race days that make me do that (flashback to 2005 when my close friends Adam, Ben, and Jason all ran Boston together).

So back to my time with Avi. Before LA, I had done my 21 miler with Dave in the lovely hills of River Road, but Avi and Bob had also chosen to use this lovely training ground for their 14 miler in preparation for Boston. We met them on the course, and we had stopped to talk to the 2 of them to see how their workout was going. Avi and I started to talk, and I know he wasn't the first to mention it to me, he mentioned that I was working way too hard, and not letting my body rest. A few other teammates had mentioned it, and when he said it, I blew it off, but said I'd keep it in mind. He had known of my desire of achieving 5 marathons in 2008, among a bunch of other half marathons and shorter races, and definitely showed his dissatisfaction at that desire, and mentioned to concentrate on few races and do well at them, rather than many and do OK.

Looking back on it, it was great advice, and it took an injury for me to figure it out. I'm sure that I am not the first person to make this mistake, and I won't be the last. I call it an immature runner - I was, and still am a newbie to this sport, and have lessons to learn, but its a good thing I have people looking out to help me avoid the pitfalls, or at least tell me that they may be ahead.

Avi and I spent the whole 21 mile ride just talking as if we were both just going for a walk in a park, it was as if he was conversing first, running second. He was able to transcend the whole thing and almost naturally just have that flow to keep rolling. I have the thought he had the same feeling on those hills that I had the weeks before, the miles of 9-11 looked as if he kept floating up that road like it was lunch, and he ate it up. ATE IT UP. Like I had never seen before. After that, we continued our talk, about tons of things, running, life in general, and my lack of drive for the triathlons coming up. I love the thought of the three sports, but the desire to leave myself out on a course for 12-18 hours is something I don't think I have the desire to. OK, let me get back on track before I get derailed by ADD. Those days were the ones I came back to once I found out I'd be off from running. I thought back to those tuesdays and thursdays where KC said she'd beat me if I didn't back off. I laughed at it, but in hindsight, maybe I should have just taken time off and let my body get a rest. 100% of my body took a beating for almost 9 months of road work, and something had to happen, and I didn't realize it until it was too late.

Avi spent almost 18 months of building base to make his 2:51:12 performance today. He also made a big fan out of me with his great desire to concentrate his energy on the few races he does a year to make them his BEST performances. The injury has me concentrating my efforts on the three things that I am involved in - my job, RWP, and my position as the President of the NY chapter of my undergrad alumni association. I have let the last one slip over the past 8 months or so with the whole marathon thing, but its time that I can get a framework in place to where I can devote a chunk of time, but get better returns, by getting others involved. Its like RWP is for some people - an outlet where they can meet people with a similar background, and a desire for the success of a common goal - our alma mater.

I've diverged from the subject of the blog a little, but today had me thinking a lot. Inspiration is something that I try to find in the most complex things in life sometimes, when its sometimes thrown at you in the simplest things. Something simple like putting a foot down on the ground and repeating this for 26.2 miles. Building a 1 mile run at a calm pace to that 26.2 may take years, but the trip has only begun for me, and I hope I can help someone like I think Avi has helped me, and others on the team to figure out how to perform at our best.

And I had to include this picture - the classic Avi picture from the Poland Spring run this past fall:

On a funny note, Avi, if you read this, don't drink coffee ever again before a run (he was trying something new before the run, which didn't work out so well ;-) )