Come so far, so far to go

Today, I finished a day of work and ran 4 miles. I packed (as all of us who are not from Boston for a little trip) a little earlier than last year, trying to figure out how many combination of race outfits I'd need depending on the weather we get on Monday. T-shirt, singlet, shorts, long T? rain gear? Who knows).

So the passport, Canada hat, bib pickup card and watch are ready to go.



Funny thing about the watch, I checked the total mileage I've put into my Garmin 405 since I got it in September 2008. (Yes, the new 610 got me thinking of replacing it one day)

The readout: 8,102.02 kilometres in 706 hours, 9 minutes, 8 seconds. That's more than 5,000 miles.

Back then, my 2008 self was trying to aim for Boston. Didn't end too well. The 2011 self, I thought during my run on the trail I've run day in day out for many years, has come so far, yet so long to go. Boston 2011 will be awesome in the lets squeeze out every drop of energy I put into running and then reset things. Reset because now with two visits to the hallowed grounds, the third one is no guarantee for a while.

Knowing that I gotta get back to work to book a future trip is humbling. The new standards are actually the same my younger self in 2008 aspired to. So it's really not that out of reach. What has changed is what I want to do next. Race for a BQ? Er, check with me in June. Maybe not five marathons every year from now on. Lots of 'sole' searching, I know. Whatever, I'll leave that runner's dilemma for another day.

For this weekend, god damn, the plan is to bask in the greatness of others, to once again fool myself into thinking I belong (okay, I do, but still, not in my mind). Boston on marathon weekend is a special place. Actually, the route to Boston is pretty awesome too. If we aim for sunny skies, and the crowd is into it, that's the one rave run everyone wants to bask in. Run fast, run for a PR, run for the hills, run for the crowds, run to Boston. And maybe make a pitstop or two.