Competing Against The Pros

I've been thinking a lot about the upcoming Marine Corps Marathon. Some of it has been expected (nervous, excited, worried) and some of it has been unexpected ("how quickly can I go to the bathroom and will it ruin my time?").

Amongst all that crazy talk, though, was a very cool thought about running in half and full marathons. And while that thought was half-forming in my head, I stumbled across a great blog entry that had already expressed everything that I wanted to say on the subject.

It's a blog entry called Why I Love Marathons, and this is my favorite part:

That’s why I love marathons (and triathlons). They’re open to any old body on any old given day. If you’ve got the gumption, put in the training hours and pay the registration fee, you can race alongside (okay, mostly behind but still in the same race with) world-class, record-holding champions.

It's from a fun blog called "Why I Suck At Running," and I invited you to check it out. I love that she was able to articulate my own thoughts. I get to compete at the same time, on the same course, and through the same Start and Finish lines with world class athletes. No other sport lets me do that.

And with that, I'm even  more motivated to running this marathon.