Marathon: 26.2

Hello Friends!

Let's chat. I'm going to run a Marathon.

Let's go back a few years. November 15th, 2005. I had just gone to Miami to see a U2 concert and had bought a UM shirt. It looked like it should have fit me, so I didn't try it on. I went to Michelle's house and tried it on. It hardly fit. I looked like a fricken snaussage. I was like really? Was I really that big that I couldn't fit into this shirt. And then I thought about all of my other clothes. Baggy button up shirt. Hoodies. Baggy Button up shirt. More hoodies. And I was like oh man that's no good. I'd been working night shift for a year and 3 months, eating cheap crap, occasionally working out and actually losing my mind, and I was like Well, I suppose I'm going to have to make a change (and you know because Rachel told me I'd be really ugly if I got fat).
I sat down on the airplane ride home and made the November 15th resolution. I resolved to make it a priority to get into better shape, and I'd love to be able to say it was because of my health, longevity, life, not having health insurance, all of the above. BUT NO. It was because I couldn't fit into a T-shirt.

So for at least a year a half, I worked out because I wanted to look better in T-shirts. You know at some point in the last decade they changed how they made t-shirts, so they no longer had any rigidity, no they just hang off you. Terrible.

And then I discovered Yoga, and realized through that Excercise and Yoga could be used for something other then looking good in t-shirts, they could provide you with peace of mind. Or at least help you chill the fuck out. So when I would go on 4 miles runs or run up the hills, I would think to myself, "Will this is the hardest thing you are going to do all week." And that made other things not seem so bad, or tough. It gave me perspective.

So I write to you all today to say, I am going to run the Los Angeles Marathon on May 25th, of the year 2009.

Why am I going to do this? Well, I have lots of reasons. Lots of inspiration.

- Close friends who ran the Marathon.
- The Challenge.
- People believing I can't do it.
- Making sure I can still fit into my t-shirts.
- The Adventure
- Because I never believed in a million years that I would ever do it.
- Because I feel like I have to prove that I can do this, because I want to believe that anything is possible.
- Because working nights broke something in me, and I'm not sure that that's a bad thing.

And mostly, because as I've gotten older, I've tried to learn more and more about myself and I think that now, NOW I am the kind of person who would do this. And this is only the beginning.