Pheidippides

Marathon, Greece, 490 B.C.

Pheidippides, a Greek warrior brings news to Athens, "Victory" and collapses in exhausted death.

The Persian army was defeated, and Greece was safe for the Greeks.

Poor Pheidippides was only dead...dead and remembered.



Ok, so I had to look up his name. I kind of knew the story. I remembered the idea behind the marathon. The battle, the Greekness of it, the ancient Olympic event... but nobody really expected me to remember the name Pheidippides, did they?

He certainly wasn't on my mind when Olivia casually asked me a few weeks ago if I would run a marathon for her. He wasn't on my mind when I bought my pedometer. And, he wasn't on my mind when I ran the first two miles on my 6 month training schedule.

But, Pheidippides was my kindred spirit when I had my first day of fartlek training. I thought for sure my chest was going to explode. (Hint to those inspired by the journey I'm now taking: don't eat anything with syrup when you're going to run!)

Yes. Bryan is running a marathon. He's joining one of the world's oldest sub-cultures. It's not an impossible thing to imagine, but I'm still excited about it. I'm be running in San Antonio on November 15th. I've never raced further than 5K, and I've probably never run much longer than that, even growing up.

So, while it may amuse some people to wonder why in the world I'd do something like this to myself, it's actually pretty simple: Why not?

Comments

Olivia said…
Yes, you are going to do this and I'm gonna be so proud of you! I can't wait until Novemeber! Love you.
June 2, 2009 at 2:48 PM
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