Boston Just Around the Mile

I hope that miles are packed full of vitamin B and all of the other nutrients that one needs to live. As my training for the Boston marathon unfolds, I guess I could say that I’ve eaten more miles for breakfast these past few months than I have in a long time.

Today is April 6, 2009 and all I can think about right now is the Boston marathon. What a joy it is to step into such an historical tradition that this particular marathon offers. Finishing a marathon in general corrals a person into a special group of harriers that is esteemed and respected. After all the distance itself killed its first ever participant. I wonder how that conversation came up when folks decided to start the marathon distance again. “Sounds like fun. Sure it will be hard but in the end you will have accomplished something.” What would Pheidippides’ tell us on the matter? But there seems to be something even more special about the Boston marathon.

My mind remembers a comical yet dramatic running movie I watched called “Saint Ralph” that every runner should see (if you are not a runner you will miss some of the laughs). The movie follows a fourteen year olds attempt to train for and win the Boston marathon, who thinks that by winning will perform a miracle which in turn will heal his mother’s terminal illness. Ralph’s blind and seemingly misplaced faith that his performance will heal his mother gives him a single-minded focus on running the Boston marathon to win it. You will have to see the movie to find out what happens!

As I finish my own Boston training, I bring up this movie because of one simple fact. For this single race I have decided to train through and run through more pain that I ever have in my life. The pain I have felt in different places, and the amount of time that pain has lingered throughout my training, would have stopped me dead at earlier points in my career for fear of permanent injury. So what is it about Boston that holds my running entranced?

What is it about Boston that has even caused me to change my shoes from stability to neutral (which is big deal for me and makes me feel like I’m going crazy)? What is it about Boston that causes my running partner to train through what sounds like a stress fracture? What is it about Boston that compelled me to tell my wife months ago, “This is just something that I have to do darling,” when she reminded me that we could not really afford

the trip? And what is it about Boston that enabled her, through her disbelief at my stupidity, to finally say, “Ok. I’m going too.”

The more I prepare for this race the more mythical it feels. It is just another race after all, but somehow as it approaches it feels like I am embarking on a pilgrimage for authentic runner-hood that can only be found in a handful of places around the world. I suppose you could say that as a runner I feel like I’m getting ready to go home. Oh ya, and to follow up with Bryan's tradition, I hope I can control my bowel movements to a zero during the actual 26.2 miles at Boston!

And Ryan Hall is going to be there! Along with Kara Goucher and hopefully Bill Rodgers!

By Brett Baddorf