This was the first of several rest days between now and then.

When I combat my mind, and yield to my body, I regress back to a time when I had no idea if I would make it. to

There is a distinct part in that course that evokes a flashbulb memory of the single happiest day of my life. April 18, 2005.

Heaven knew no boundaries on that day. And hope and dream and promise will know no boundaries two weeks from this morning.

It’s ironic, because the apex of this great foot race is really a human break down; Physical and emotional. It breaks you down to the most vulnerable of conditions. And then it is over.




I’ve heard much talk of this race. And that is why I speak so directly of it now.

It is because the static only appears once a year. For it is only when the event looms so close as it does now, do the masses realize what it is, what it was, and speculate as to what it will be in two weeks time. But they don’t know its’ fire.

What the Boston Marathon is, and what it stands for, is more than its cumulative distance, or the collection of its participants. For all who have crossed under Boylston Street’s blue and yellow banners, have become the cement of over 110 years of athletic achievement.

I would respectfully submit that the ethos of this event is not Wellesley. Nor is it the Firehouse. Nor even the students of Boston College on Patriots Day in Suffolk County. But it is the aspirations of tens of thousands of individuals daring to conquer something they had unforeseen just one year ago.

And it is for this reason that I tip my hat to those whom I know, some longer than others, who share with me, this grand endeavor.

It was once reclaimed that one ought not do another one of these damned events until you’ve forgotten the last. I can assure you there is hubris in this statement. But there is also truth.

I know that at some point two weeks from now, I will be in the greatest amount of pain I have been since I did this same thing 365 days earlier.

This distance can destroy you – literally.

…If you don’t heed the respect it commands. Witness Boston 2004. Chicago 2007. It can be an inferno of rubber and crushed paper and adenosine triphosphate. A truly ignominious end to an otherwise illustrious day. This dragon that stretches eight cities is a hardened and an ardent foe.

But if you learn of its habits, its flaws, and its weaknesses, you can slay it. Some seek to try something less, something less adversarial. Others choose to stay at home and enjoy a quiet day away from the classroom or office, watching this event on their couches.

I yearn to breathe its fire.