A number is worth a thousand words...

The BAA posted our bib numbers for the marathon yesterday. It's funny how within 12 hours of the announcement almost every DFMC blogger has written about their number and found some special significance hidden inside those 5 special numerals. Now, I could say that everyone is just being silly... the numbers are assigned at random, and in some desperate attempt to attach further meaning to our marathoning experience they have over-analyzed and read too much into it. Yes, I could say that... but of course, that would be a bit hypocritical of me considering I did the exact same thing.

22289- that's the magic number.  Let the over-analyzing begin:

Now, I know 22 is the corral number for Dana-Farber... but more importantly 2 was my mom's favorite number.  22 was her even more favorite number because there are, you guessed it, two two's.  Throw another 2 in there for good measure and you've got a whole lot of 2's.  You can call it a coincidence, but I'm going to look at it as a sign... one more thing that's going to remind me on marathon day what I am doing this for and who I am doing it in memory of.

8- honestly, at first thought, the number didn't hold a whole lot of significance for me.  So, instead of just leaving it at that, I consulted the internet.  Turns out, in numerology, the number 8 is "a carrier of dynamic success and power" (let's hope that's true) and its character reveals a perfect balance between the world of ideas and the world of action.  Also, in the Bible, the number 8 signifies regeneration and resurrection.  This is especially significant to me in that my running the marathon in memory of my mom is, in part, my way of moving on from the loss of my mother.  

And 9.  9 is a number that represents intellectual power and our influence over situations and things.  This will most certainly be important to me on marathon day as I have quickly learned that running is more mental, especially for me, than it is physical.  My body is capable of running for as long as my mind is able to convince myself that I can keep going.

So there it is, my over-analyzation of my bib number assignment. Maybe it is just a random number, but maybe, just maybe, it is the number that I was meant to have.  Regardless, I will wear 22289 proudly on April 21 and I will carry with me all of its meaning, far fetched or not, for all 26.2 miles.