"I know you can be overwhelmed and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be 'whelmed?'"

After professing my love to all things Marathon Challenge related yesterday, I arrived home from the gym last night feeling very overwhelmed about what I have gotten myself into here. First of all, it was cold and rainy yesterday, which forced me to go to the gym instead of doing a run outside. Don't get me wrong, I am more than happy to run in the rain, even cold rain, but I've been reading that it's flu season here in Boston so I am trying to avoid all situations which might leave me more susceptible to sickness. Anyways, I had a not so great workout at the gym, left feeling pretty horribly about where I'm at in my training progress, and then had to trudge home in the freezing rain. When I walked in the door to my apartment, sitting there on the coffee table was my official entry card for the marathon from the BAA; a glaring reminder of how miserably unprepared I feel.

I opened up my computer to check my email and found an email from my dad from the other day, already pulled up on my screen, with a blog entry written by Jon Gordon, a kind of crazy inspirational speaker guy:

Here's a question I bet you've never been asked before. At what mile do most people quit a marathon? If you are like me you would probably say the 26th mile. After all that's when runners should be the most physically drained and exhausted. But like most things in life, there's more to the story. Besides the first mile, the 26th is when the least amount of people quit. While there could be a hundred explanations as to why this is, I believe one reason stands in front of all the others. This reason is Vision and the power of the mind.
Most runners don't quit during the 26th mile because they have a vision of where they are going. They see the end in sight so they keep striving for it. Sure they are physically exhausted but their vision fuels them and tells them to keep going to reach their destination.
Most runners quit a marathon at the 20th mile because this is when they lose sight of their vision. This is when they are both physically exhausted and mentally drained. This is when runners feel they have come so far and yet still have so far to go. This is when their goal fades away and their mental power dissipates...
After all, there will be days when our bodies say no and we need our mind to say yes. There will be times when it seems that everything in life conspires to sabotage our goals and dreams. And there will be weeks or even months when we feel like we are hitting the 20th mile. The answer is to maintain your vision and focus on it. Keep your vision alive and it will keep you alive. Don't give up. Keep striving towards the vision planted in your mind and heart.

So maybe I've hit my 20th mile in training, but I am certainly not going to turn around and quit now. Yes, there will be days when I don't feel my best, when I wonder why I got myself into this, when I think it would be so easy to just give up. But when it comes down to it, this whole thing, running with DFMC, is so much bigger than just me running a race, and if I keep that vision alive, I will be just fine come marathon day. Plus, this is all supposed to be fun, right? So, last night, armed with my little revelation, I went to belt out some tunes playing RockBand with my roommate and the neighbors. If my career as a marathon runner doesn't pan out, maybe I can be a rock star...