on the iPod: "been around the world" -- puffy featuring biggie smalls
countdown to NYC: 28 days
It was winter of 2012, on some random February day, of which now I can't remember the date. Sitting in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel for a conference of AP teachers, I drank bad coffee and leafed through a copy of USA Today while waiting for the day's events -- plenary sessions and keynote speakers -- to begin. Across the breezeway were tables of bland pastries that, until a few hours ago, had clearly been individually packaged and boxed in a walk-in freezer. All the toasters in the world couldn't bring these back to life. They were hopeless. On the other side of the expansive atrium were the hotel's famed ducks, calmly waddling about and leisurely swimming in the fountain. I like ducks.
Conferences tend to get a bad rap, but save for the pretty awful food, I enjoy them. I always feel like I get a shot of energy for education, I get reminded why I do what I do. Outside of running, working with students is a huge part of my life. So it's nice to get together for a few days with like-minded colleagues and share ideas. That might sound mildly insincere or trite, but it's the truth. Conferences are also a great chance to get in a run in a different city, and if my memory serves me well, I had done just that the day before with Jason Jedamski. We ran the first six miles of the the Little Rock Marathon course through the streets of downtown.
But in the middle of hearing about strategies for teaching AP students and networking with teachers from all over the South, I couldn't stop thinking about running. Go figure. It didn't help that I continued to get email reminders about races opening for registration. Time was of the essence and I had an itch that needed scratching. Let me explain.
At the time Mrs. Murie and I had just begun training for the Nashville Marathon that was coming up at the end of April. We were excited to be running in a new city and had preliminarily discussed bookending it with the St. Jude Memphis Marathon in December. We also both entered the lottery for NYC, knowing the chances of getting in were about 8%. That was the plan. But I was feeling a little bit bold and had been thinking for quite some time about trying to do an additional marathon in between. There seemed to be plenty of time and I felt great. And even though we had explicitly agreed to not consider it, I couldn't get Chicago out of my mind. We had just run it for the second time in a row four months earlier and I had fallen in love with the race.
So there I sat, knowing that the Chicago Marathon fills up with 45,000 runners within days of open registration, and desperately wanting to sign up. I should have been concerned with education, but I wasn't. I couldn't stand not running it for a third time in a row and I decided to go for it. I broke my promise to Mrs. Murie and filled out the registration form online from my iPhone. Right there in front of god and everybody, with the ducks staring at me with shame and discontent in their beady eyes. They judged me from the water and I could feel their disappointment. I had to get away from them.
The rest of the conference is a blur, as all I could think about was going back to Chicago and lacing up for 26.2 miles. I was ecstatic.
Fast forward to the week of the Nashville Marathon when I got the email from NYC letting me know that I had indeed hit the lottery. Actually, the website crashed from runners all over the world anxious to know and constantly refreshing, so I checked my credit card statement online and saw a post from the New York Road Runners for $255 and knew I'd gotten in. Now I had a pleasant dilemma of two races within a month of each other and a confession to make to my best good running friend. As we spent the night in a cheap hotel in Memphis en route to Nashville, I came clean and told her that i'd secretly registered. Those damn ducks had been haunting me in my dreams, but I slept like a baby that night after Mrs. Murie gave me her blessing to run Chicago without her.
Fast forward again to summer when I was fighting daily foot pain and not knowing how I was going to train for anything, much less two marathons in the fall. But Painful Patty got hold of me with her magic hands and got me on the road to recovery faster than I could have ever imagined. Running both seemed like a distant possibility again, but I couldn't bring myself to commit to doing it. Ultimately, I decided i'd wait until the week of the race and base my decision on good weather and cheap flight availability. The first one came through and the second one didn't.
Fast forward one final time and here I sit in Fayetteville, AR on marathon day, and I can't say that I wouldn't rather be coming home from Chicago with sore legs and hardware around my neck. By all accounts, and by that I mean online footage and text messages/facebook posts from friends who did run it, the 2012 Chicago Marathon was another huge success. The winners on both sides were Ethiopians, ending the reign of Kenyan domination in the last few years. It wasn't meant for me to participate, and i'm okay with that. Granted, i've been more than a little bit pouty today, but it wasn't anything that a 10-miler after church couldn't work out. And just for the record, I ran like hell for those 10 miles. I owned the Skull Creek trail today.
We've got one more 20 mile training run before New York City and then it will be time to taper. Running the largest marathon in the world with Mrs. Murie is going to make up for this weekend, and i'm trying to remind myself of that on an hourly basis. It's going to be a game-changer in my short running career and I know that i'll never forget it.
So here's the deal: I'm putting you on notice, Chicago Marathon, I'll be back and i'm bringing a running posse to rip it up for 26.2 miles. We're gonna blow in and have the time of our lives again. Just wait. Run and tell that!
postscript. A great big congratulations to three Chicago FINISHERS that i'm happy to call friends: Carole Swope, Jamie Huneycutt, and Bruce Wilkins. I was simultaneously cheering for you and cursing all day. I really was.
another postscript. Thanks a million to all who have helped with my fundraising efforts, i'm over half way to my goal. Anybody so inclined to give can check out my page at the link below. It would mean a lot to me, every dollar will help.
http://www.shoe4africa.org/charity/civicrm/contribute/pcp/info?reset=1&id=460
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