Why I Ran

I'll post a Santa Clarita Marathon Race Report soon. For now, here's a post-dated message I wrote a couple months ago.

After the L.A. Marathon I sort of knew I'd have to do another one, mostly to get rid of all the bad Juju from the day. I was looking at Las Vegas, P.F. Changs, and Walt Disney World. So why on Earth did I decide to run a marathon in a podunk town like Santa Clarita?

Payback.

There is some debate as to how much influence Brad had on my decision to run my first 5k. But what is not in dispute is that he had a huge impact on me sticking with the running. I think it's important to go through the experience with someone at your same level, who can really share in your excitement. ("Oh my God! Can you believe we ran FIVE MILES this weekend?!") And that's what we did. That led to me doing triathlons and eventually the L.A. Marathon, and I wanted to make sure that Brad experienced every bit of pain that I went through. I wanted to have his soul ripped out of his ankle and stuffed into his cramped belly. The Santa Clarita Marathon starts literally 3 miles from his house; I knew that if I signed up to do it, he would follow. And in spite of my warnings I knew nothing would prepare him for the torture he would go through.

Of course, there is a little more to it than that. Before I did L.A., Brad trained for the Long Beach Marathon. He injured himself on his final 20-mile training run and had to drop out just two weeks before the race. I hate the fact that he didn't get closure with his marathon training. He has a family which obviously takes a lot of commitment and I'm not sure if he ever would have tried again on his own. I don't know ultimately how important it was to him to do a marathon some day, but it was important to me that he do one. So I forced his hand and signed up, knowing he would as well. He may be Just A Runner, but now he's a marathoner and I know many triathletes who can't make that claim.

I'm not overstating things by saying that running has dramatically changed my life. Brad has now completed a marathon; my debt to him is paid in full.