On the day I decided to commit to doing a half marathon and full marathon, I had a good conversation with my Grandpa on the drive into work. It is always how I talk with him now...while I am in the car. It was one of things we had in common...our love of cars and driving. We would always have our best chats when we would go out for a drive, clean/polish cars, and test drive cars as well. It was one of our things. I miss it. I miss him. Every Single Day.
My Grandpa worked hard for many, many years...and since most of his work was physical in nature, he was always fit. He was careful about fueling himself with the best possible food and rarely over indulged. He respected the balance required. When I was mulling over the idea it occurred to me that I have never had that same respect. The balance. The discipline. The more I thought about it, the more I thought about how transforming my eating and increasing my physical activity would bring me closer to him.
In my reading, I made several notes in my journal about a few lines that have really struck a cord with me from the book - Marathoning for Mortals by John "The Penguin" Bingham and Jenny Hadfield.. There are two lines that I replay in my mind over and over like a mantra - "You have to take whatever talent you have, train as well as you can, and then go out and see what happens" (pg. 15) and "Sometimes its simply knowing that we put it all together and give it our best shot " (pg. 15). These two lines sum up not only my thoughts about 13.1 and 26.2 miles...but pretty much everything you tackle in life. Take what you have, look around, and then go for it.
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