Farewell to Wineglass

It was a personally tough decision. For months I ruminated about the thought of going through with it, dreading following through with the decision I knew would be in my best interest. And last night I did it. I decided not to participate in the 2007 Wineglass Marathon in Corning, New York on Sept 30th. I am not satisfied with my training over the summer, and don't feel prepared to take on such a rigourous distance and risk physical injury. I can't recall the last time I ever quit something I committed to; however, the thought of racing a distance I was unprepared for would not offer me the confidence of achieving a personal best.

So I set my sights on training for Toronto's 2007 Half Marathon on October 14th. I was already ahead of the training schedule with respect to distance as I had previously run 22km, so now I was actually scaling back my distance to adhere to a sensible and achievable training schedule that fit into my busy summer plans. The stress had instantly lifted as the pressure to catch up with missed marathon runs was eliminated. I love half marathons--they are achievable without much preparation required. My race strategy was to start slowly and end strong. Prior to the race, I plan on running the route a few times to have a good visual of the course. I break down the distance into 5 or 10km segments, and psychologically pat myself on the back every time I complete a segment: "Alright! Your made it X km. Now only X more to go. You can do that. You've done it before." A mantra that I repeat in my head during intense moments was one I saw during my first Toronto Half Marathon many years ago: "Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional." Embracing the pain rather than distracting mysef from it, knowing that every runner out there with me is probably experiencing some sort of discomfort and is still pushing through it, helps me keep going kilometer after kilometer, on foot planted in front of the other, inching my way closer to the finish line and the streets lined with cheering, supportive spectators, family, and friends. Rounding the corner to see the numbers of people near that end point encouraging you with the sweet sounds of shouting and clapping gives me a shot of adrenaline that propels me towards the the finish...battered but never beaten.