Words of Inspiration?

Within the last couple of days, I've experienced a lot of different emotions about this upcoming race. I have been re-inspired by the cause, I have been excited about the sense of accomplishment we'll have when we finish, and I have been absolutely terrified by the distance we will be covering. Although I realize that this mix is normal -- particularly for someone who is running her first marathon -- I think I'd rather skip the butterflies and get to the starting line.

Or would I?

As I was reading through the various TNT emails of inspirational quotations today, I remembered a gift I had received my senior year of high school. Three of my track coaches had generously given me a book titled The Quotable Runner: Great Moments of Wisdom, Inspiration, Wrongheadedness, and Humor. Having tucked it away after my most recent move and totally forgotten about it until earlier this evening, I found it among the other books on my dresser. I picked it up and leafed through the table of contents. Page 173 -- The Marathon. Perhaps this would be a good place to look for some relief from the confusion.

What I found, however, was not quite what I expected. What I had expected (perhaps stupidly) was to find a plethora of quotations about how great running a marathon is ... about how awesome we'll feel when we finally cross the finish line ... about how it'll be totally worth the pain. Now, I won't say the positive vibes were totally nonexistent (I've included a few examples at the end of this post), but they certainly weren't overwhelming. Basically, the vast majority of the quotations made me realize that this race is going to hurt -- REALLY hurt. But you know what? I've realized that I'm okay with that.

I've decided that maybe the butterflies and the anticipation, the nausea and the pain, are not only parts of the package, but they're parts we should enjoy. Call me weird, but that's the realization I've come to. If it didn't hurt so badly, would we be as determined or inspired to give it our all? Maybe. But I don't think so. At least I don't think I would be. After all, I absolutely hated running the 400m during my track days. Every single race, the last 100m felt like I was running in quicksand and I couldn't breathe when I crossed the finish. Or how about going to penalty kicks at the end of a double-overtime final of a soccer tournament that marked the tenth game we'd played in 8 days? That definitely didn't feel great either. But I'm pretty sure those games and races wouldn't have been nearly as fulfilling if they had been painless and easy.

So, even though I was initially taken aback by the lack of enthusiasm in these tidbits of "wisdom" and "inspiration", I have come to terms with the fact that -- despite their negativity -- they are actually inspirational to me. Yes, we may feel like throwing up for a week before the race. And, yes, we may feel like we have been hit by a truck for days afterward. But I'm going to try to savor every bit of the experience, and I am going to be so incredibly proud of all of us when we've accomplished our goal. Heck, I'm already proud. We're doing this for a great cause. We've worked so hard to get where we are. It's going to be extremely tough, but it's going to be awesome.

Below are some of the quotations that I found in the book. I thought these were a good mix of the realistic and the optimistic. Thanks again to Coach Morris, Coach Babb, and Coach Alexander for the gift. Go Team!

"The marathon is a charismatic event. It has everything. It has drama. It has competition. It has camaraderie. It has heroism. Every jogger can't dream of being an Olympic champion, but he can dream of finishing a marathon." --Fred Lebow

"The marathon's about being in contention over the last 10k. That's when it's about what you have in your core. You have run all the strength, all the superficial fitness out of yourself, and it really comes down to what's left inside you. To be able to draw deep and pull something out of yourself is one of the most tremendous things about the marathon." --Rob de Castella

"I was unable to walk for a whole week after that, so much did the race take out of me. But it was the most pleasant exhaustion I have ever known." --Emil Zatopek's description of the Olympic Marathon win in Helsinki