Every Magnificent Mile

On Sunday, mid-Chicago Marathon, I learned something unexpected about myself. 

I love to run fast and to place well in races. I know people who are much faster and others who are stronger competitors than I am, and I do sometimes struggle to dig deeply enough in the final miles to feel in the end like I gave it all I had. But I have some natural talent and work hard enough to generally make a good showing. I train, I plan, I prepare, and I can tough it out through a lot of discomfort.

However, while I want to to do well in races—both to feel great and to finish strong—I figured out over the weekend that it is only a small piece of the puzzle I call my life.

Saturday afternoon I was presented with the opportunity to either take the shuttle bus to the Chicago Marathon expo or to, on a glorious blue-skied autumn afternoon, bike ride the seven miles there. While I grappled with the wisdom of riding a bike seven miles the day before running a marathon, I settled on a halfway compromise. But then the day happened. Biking was easy, the path smooth and flat, the weather perfect, and before I knew it I had opted for the full seven mile ride.

My friend and fellow rider asked me several times over the next 24 hours whether I regretted biking and if I had wished I had taken the shuttle to preserve my legs. I didn't have to even think about it. How could I ever regret that ride even, and we will never know, if it cost me precious race minutes?

After the bike ride, I stayed up a little too late talking and eating with wonderful new friends, drank a glass of wine with dinner, and stared out from the 28th floor at the bright moon over the Chicago River. None of which I could ever regret.

While a fast race and well run race is an adventure in and of itself, more adventure may await. Life is big. I can embrace adventure and it is okay—for me—to potentially trade adventure for the planned finish. I do not believe, truly, that my Saturday bike ride altered my Sunday race outcome. But had it, it would be a lesson and an adventure.

Now I need to focus on the flip side of the equation—letting myself off the hook when I run a race more slowly or less well than my goal because I let life step in and sweep away my best focused intentions. The inevitable disappointment that creeps in because I didn't run this marathon better or faster than the last one. Yeah, but I went on a beautiful bike ride and made new friends.

Of course, there is a slippery slope between this and deliberately giving myself excuses for not running well but that's another blog entry... (see this also)