FEEL IT

"'Cause everything that we could feel, we feel insanely"

~ Mikky Ekko, 'Love You Crazy'

Marathon training is a beast.  I'm sorry, I know I say this often.  But, having just gotten through this last training cycle, it's really the one word that comes to mind each and every time.  It is such a physical and emotional rollercoaster and there are no free rides.  Well, unless you're willing to roll the dice which usually results in a brutally painful ride and I'm guessing there are not many out there who willingly choose to hop on the pain train.  Seriously, though, whether you are training with a lofty goal in mind or just to have fun on race day, you still have to put the time in.  And it's so much time.  Months and months of long runs and workouts and miles upon miles.  And that's in addition to all the other stuff we have to do in our ordinary, every day lives.  It's like a side job that no one really gives a shit about but we still have to punch the clock because, for whatever reason, we want....need...even crave the extra work.  As I reflect back on this particular training cycle, I can pinpoint all of the various phases and the emotions that went along with them.  Joy, pain, madness, doubt, fear, desire, worry and total and complete exhaustion among many others.  I've run about 1,130 miles since I started training back in November and I've honestly been overcome by every single one of these emotions, often all of them and very often multiple times a day.  String them all together, and that's my story.  It's funny and crazy and awesome and ridiculous and probably even annoying.  But I truly feel it all; the good, the bad and the ugly, right up to the start of the race and all the way through it.  And, in sharing it, hopefully you feel it, too.  Because feeling is living.  But feeling it with others makes it that much more real.  Can you feel that?  I know I do.

Listen to this:
JOY - Loma