An Arrogant and Arbitrary Decision by Your Correspondent

I'm easily influenced by my emotions. However, I like to think that because I know this and am aware of it, it negates the condition. Yet this attitude only leads me to distort my instincts and decisions in over-reaction to my emotions, which has the ultimate effect of just making me wildly unpredictable and almost random in behavior. The resulting internal dialogue is something like this:

I feel like this counter-emotional construct can explain probably 62% of my decisions that don't appear logical or well thought-out on the surface. A decision I made this past Monday reflects this abstract process: I will run a sub-3:00 marathon someday.


As my good fortune (or poor foresight) would have it, I had a three hour class on the morning of Patriots Day, which meant I would miss the entirety of the Boston Marathon's professional race. Instead of enjoying the live video coverage, as I would have preferred, I had to settle for furious updates of my twitter feed to get race developments in 140 character snippets. It actually turned out to be a compelling way to follow the race, but in the same sense that one's grandfather discusses listening to Bobby Thompson's 'Shot Hears Around The World' on the family radio in his childhood living room.


Two stories emerged from that race that led to my poorly-developed idea. The first was the wire-to-wire excitement of the women's race. Kim Smith's surge from the beginning and aggressive style was a show of bravado and confidence that I could only envy. She couldn't have possibly been a favorite to win this race, and to call her aggression a 'surprise' is like calling the sunrise 'predictable'. The alluring part of it though was the Kim Smith didn't know she wasn't supposed to dominate the race until injury took her down. She may have crashed and burned, but she did so gloriously. Bon Jovi would have been proud. As if that weren't sufficient, Desi Davila grabbed the baton from Smith's unraveling body and made a courageous run at winning the whole thing; falling just two seconds shy in an incredible sprint at the end. Like Smith, Davila wasn't supposed to win, place, or show either. She has been in the shadow of two women named Kara and Shalane in the marathon circuit the last few years, but firmly asserted herself yesterday as third of the American Woman's Marathon triumvirate. This wasn't a placement that was given to her, but one she earned the hard way. Again, she jumped up from relative anonymity to grab everyone's attention, kind of like Tim Riggins in a Texas State Championship Game (or bar filled with single women).


Secondly, the men's race and systematic demolishing of several records*. Geoffrey Mutai's World Record (or 'fastest marathon ever'? I lose track) and Ryan Hall's American Record were both just awesome. They go to show that when one prepares and puts themselves in a good position enough times, eventually, everything will come together at once and create the race of a lifetime.


The common thread of all these storylines is runners who raised their standards beyond anyone's expectations. No one, maybe not even Kim Smith, expected her to carry the lead for as long as she did. Who foresaw Desi Davila finishing two seconds out of first? And if you bet on both the World and American records for the men to fall, then you probably have a gambling problem. The inner workings of my id and my ego are as much of a black box to me as they are to you, but I do know this: the excitement of yesterday's Boston Marathon went in, and a new resolve to run a three hour marathon came out.


My current PR (set back in January at the Rock & Roll Arizona Marathon) is 3:06, but that required every bit of guts and will power I had. Can I reasonably expect to shave six minutes off that time? Maybe, maybe not. Is it arrogant of me to think I can? Probably. Is this an overly-emotional reaction? Likely, but again, I like to think acknowledgement of this influence countervails it. So hopefully whatever goes into the subconscious decision making process that plants ideas like this in my mind has taken that into consideration. Thus, my decision (as if it really were just that simple to declare future achievements and results) is probably irrational, and certainly arrogant, but it's the one I've made.


26.2 miles. 3 hours. I'll figure out the rest later.


-John


*I'm going to pretend that the Boston Marathon course actually is eligible for record setting. Saying it's not is like saying the Green Monster in Fenway Park doesn't allow for 'real' home runs to be hit over it.