the true achievement.

Countdown: 24 days.

Touchdown May. Sunday, May 24, 2015. Less than a month away. The Clif2Mountain Marathon. I’m feeling good. My body is strong. I'm fueling properly (well, despite the occasional potato chip or ice cream binge). I'm getting enough sleep...usually. I’m physically prepared.

Mentally prepared? Well let's just say that's a daily battle.


It's hard knowing you have to run every day. No matter the distance. No matter the weather. No matter how tired you may feel. You've got to suck it up, lace up your shoes and just keep running. After an 8-hour work day, yes, happy hour with beers and tacos sounds appealing.  But what's more appealing? Qualifying for the Boston Marathon 2016.
My manager and I were the last ones in the office on Thursday. The rest of the Antenna crew was on route to happy hour. Tacos and beers for $5 before 7pm. What a deal.

I wasn’t going.

The inherent fear of missing a workout never leaves my mind. I’ve stayed committed to my marathon training plan. I’ve run my long runs, my tempos and my hills. I’ve cut alcohol from my diet. I’ve embraced the purple toenails and farmer’s tan. No happy hour will convince me to miss a workout at this point. Not with only four weeks left. Plus, I can have beer and tacos after my run. And I see my coworkers every day. No FOMO here.

[sigh]

"Come on, just come with us. You know you're gonna kill it anyway." Matt attempts to convince me one last time.

Those words reverberated in my head that night as I ran. But will I? Would I? Could I qualify for Boston? What if I didn’t? All my training, hard work, dedication, missed happy hours…what a waste.

And then came the revelation. It's not so much about achieving your goal as it is about knowing you did everything in your power to try and achieve it. It’s about stepping up to that start line with thousands of other elite athletes and non-athletes alike. At 6am on a Sunday morning. Pitch black out. Freezing as hell. Heart beating fast. Waiting as the hours become minutes, seconds until the gun goes off. Knowing you worked hard to be there.

Some have trained for years. Some for months. Some for no more than a few weeks. And yet all jumping up and down in a confined space…there to run the same race. To finish 26.2. For some it may be to cross the finish line before the roads open to the public again. For some it may be to raise money for a cause. For some -- for me – it’s to try my best to qualify for Boston 2016.

Or – rather – to know that when I cross that finish line (as a qualifier or not) that the sacrifices I made were not a waste. The experience, the journey…is the true achievement.