It's Beginning To Run A Lot Like Christmas

Running on the Town Lake trails under a gray drizzly sky, church bells ringing Christmas songs. It's cold and wet but I'm nice and cozy in my oompa-loompa style hooded jogging suit. My core is telling me I haven't been doing this enough, could be yet another New Year's Resolution. But for now it's just the trails, the runners, and the promise of a peppermint mocha afterwords. It feels good.

More Marathon Musings

It was like running on another planet (a planet with ten times Earth's gravity and half as much air), a lovely country road on a beautiful sunny day, just the way it always looks when suddenly everything is different now. Each step sent a new shock wave rolling up my body.

Live intensely.

There comes a place where you have only six point two miles to go. I can run that distance in 40 minutes, jog it in an hour, or keep walking until I get there. For most of the race, though, you're not there yet.

We pass the Lone Star Brewry. Twice. This truly is a test of willpower.

We run past the old Spanish missions. Prayer might help, but I can't risk putting stress on my knees. If you think about it, you do have time to run in and say a quick Hail Mary.

When I look back now, I think about crossing the finish line less than I think about all the rest of the race, beginning, middle, and end. Every mile has its own character, its own challenges.