I would encourage you to set really high goals. Set goals that, when you set them, you think they’re impossible. But then every day you can work towards them, and anything is possible, so keep working hard and follow your dreams.
-Katie Ledecky

I have no business signing up for a marathon. At least that is what many on the internet would tell me. According to some, I am “diluting the field of otherwise talented runners, lengthening the average marathon time.” According to others I simply “don’t work hard enough”, which is why I cannot run fast enough to qualify or get sub 4 hours. I think the reality is their goalposts moves all the time, they move them to whatever place means that putting people like me down makes them feel better about themselves.

The audacity I must have. The absurd, misguided pipe-dream that has overtaken my head honestly thinks I can step on the course for 26.2. Well, guess what? Yes. Here I am, fully in on the audacity of 26.2.

The length of a marathon is a bit silly. On a standard Boston traffic day, these 26.2 miles could take me 1-2 hours in my car. And when I simply think about 26.2, the size of that number, the length of that distance, and the duration it would take me, it is a bit absurd and I don’t think it is possible. But when I change my perspective, when I put it in the context of what I have done…

Last spring I though a half marathon was bonkers and out of the realm of possibility. “I have no business signing up for a half-marathon,” I thought. Sound familiar? Yet I signed up for one. I put in the work all year building from a 5k, to a 10k. And then as I set out a 14 week training plan for the half, every Saturday saw me hitting a new mileage I had never touched before. I did 7 and beat my 10k distance. Then 8 miles, then 9 and 10. “Hot damn, I thought.” Now my thoughts changed from “I have no business doing a half marathon” to “Man, I’m going to do this, now how do I want to do this.” Alas I completed my half 10 minutes faster than I thought I would. We simply can do far more than we think. We can accomplish far greater things that we tell ourselves.

So here I am getting ready to start September. I have again signed up for the BAA half, but this time not as a first, but as a stepping stone. It is a stepping stone to 26.2 this spring when I hope to run the Boston Marathon and complete 26.2 for the first time. It is daunting. It is scary. It seems like I may have no business doing this but I do! Because running and races are not for some tiny subset of the population. No, these are for those who are willing to put in the work, adapt their life, and aim to shatter the ceilings above them. The finish line is for all who cross it.

So I will train. I am doing my half training now and will build on that. It is my ‘base building’ effort so that in December, when it is time to begin marathon training, I will be ready.

I hope you will follow along this journey. I know it will have good days, days where I celebrate, days where I swear, and days I may want to quit. I also know that if I stick with the days, these posts may turn from talking about my audacity to my accomplishment.

Thanks, all!