Nova Marathon Challenge

Geez, if you didn't love PBS before, this would have to do it. Take a bunch of couch potato slobs, and in 9 months turn them into marathoners. Yeah, yeah, I know. I've always poo poo'd the whole charity runner thing as a gimic for people to get a free vacation on the back of a charity. Trust me, not much has changed. I still believe if you want to donate to a charity, you should donate to a charity. Donate directly to the charity with no strings attached. And for God's sake, run said charity thru Charity Navigator to make sure that the money you dontate actually goes to the charity.The nice thing about this was this was not a charity group. This was a real, monitored, scientific kind of show.

But I digress. We were talking about this Nova show. It was wonderful. They actually showed how hard it is to take someone who doesn't run and turn them into a runner. I was inspired. Then I was jealous. Sheesh, where was my heroine, Uta Pipig,when I needed her to inspire me? Trust me, I ran races with Uta. She was waaaaaaaaaay, I mean aaaaaaay up there from me. Her Boston win the year when she had "tummy distress" remains to me the most soul baring moment ever in sport. To watch her run with these people made me cry. I was so proud of all of them.

I wasn't the only one. I called Cliff afterwards and he told me that he couldn't stand it. He was crying at the end, too. I rarely watch much tv, and this show was a treat. I have no desire to run a 6 hr marathon. I could still WALK a 6 hr marathon. I was so darn proud of those people that I cried. That was a tremendous achievement. It made me want to run out and do Richmond anyway.

Then reality set in. I still have no desire to run a 6 hr marathon. I love everything about marathoning. When you are talking about personal achievement, its not about doing, its about overcoming. I could do a 6 hr marathon right now. Heck, I could probably do better than that. There would be no achievement in it, and would probably be a lot of detriment. I'll still want to be there though. Deep inside me, I'm still a marathoner.

My friend James is running Richmond. I'll be out there on my bike after the 8k to bring him support and fluid. If I can't be out there, it will be the closest I can be to doing it. Maybe if I'm lucky some of the wonderfulness will rub off on me. I sure hope it rubs off on James. I'd love to see him qualify for Boston, to have him get to run by the deafening cheers of the Welsley girls, and to get the glory of knowing that he QUALIFIED and ran the Boston Marathon. You go James. Run really, really fast...