It's hard to believe it's nearly here.
13 hours and 42 minutes until I start my first ever NYC Marathon.
4 months since I started training for the NYC Marathon.
2080.2 miles traveled since I started on this venture to get to this point. This journey which hopefully culminates tomorrow started back in December of 2012 when I decided to join the New York Road Runners with the explicit intent of getting into the 2014 NYC Marathon. To qualify for the 2014 Marathon, I participated in the NYRR 9+1 program back in 2013.
Yet as I sit here tonight thinking about tomorrow, I've come to realize it's more than the numbers. Running has slowly but surely transformed my life in so many ways over the past two years. A year ago I wrote about how I fell in love with running. That desire to hit the pavements when you see a bunch of other runners in central park in the middle of winter. YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN!
Yet now, as I prepare for the biggest run of my life.. I look at myself and realize how far I've come.
Running has me healthy again. I am without a doubt in the best shape of my life. I was OK a year ago and eh about two years ago. Clothes that fit just fine on me two years ago now look ridiculously large on me. I need new belts darn it! Actually what I really need is a new wardrobe but as I often say at work - "that's a good problem to have!"
Yet not only am I physically healthier, I'm eating healthier too. Something funny happens when you start running regularly. You want to feel as "light" on your feet as possible when you run.. and that certainly won't happen if you're eating fast food every day or eating more than you need to. Running regularly forced me to look at what I ate on a daily basis and although I'm certainly no vegan, I'm certainly more open to eating greens these days. More importantly, I watch what I consume and how much of it I consume. Eating healthy and portion control. Amazing.
It wasn't just me changing up my diet tho. Running is a thirsty sport you know.. so this means you need to hydrate yourself regularly. Hydration doesn't come about by drinking coke zero fortunately (or unfortunately a few years ago). Hydration comes about by drinking water. Yup. Water. I lowered my soft drink consumption significantly this past year and it's done wonders for me. Wonders. Sure I'll still have that occasional coke zero when there's some in the fridge at work.. yet it's not the first thing I reach for. Water truly never tasted so good!
Running also forced me to look carefully at my habits. It taught me what it meant to stick to a schedule and to commit to something outside of work and family. It taught me that not everything in life is truly that important but a small set of core things that are important to YOU should be. As I once heard Mike say (I think) - it boils down to three things. Family, Fitness, and Work. Anything else falls wayside. If these things are truly important to you then you'll make the time for them. However, if you need to make time for them then you need to allocate and commit to that time because as we all know, time is a precious commodity. Precious.
For all the moments where life can get you down.. there's nothing like a good run in the park. I've come to use these moments to reflect on issues or problems that I hope to be able to solve. Yet I've also come to use these moments on the pavement as time to simply disappear. Run and not think. Just absorb the surroundings and take it all in.
However, if it's inspiration and motivation that you need, running provides ample materials to soak in and think about. There's that story of a man with cerebral palsy who has run the NYC marathon backwards for who knows how many times. Then there's the man who has run 38 straight NYC marathons. Or the countless people out there who simply are running this race b/c it's their bucket list item. Whatever the motivation or inspiration, the stories are out there. You just need to either discover them; read them; or hear them from others.
Perhaps the one thing that most motivates me at the end of the day is... seeing how running has changed the lives of many of my good friends. Everyone from colleagues at work to friends on the volleyball court to folks on the other side of the country. Seeing the commitment that my friends have made for something as simple and as raw and as primal as running is simply motivating enough for me.
Running has made me a better person; a more focused person; a person that now wants to explore other cities and places where runners meet and embark on travels near and far.
As the New York Road Runners say on all of their materials and shirts - Run for Life.
13 hours and 11 minutes to go.
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