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January 22, 2005

Way to go Bro' Mark!

This morning I just read my brother Mark's email recap of his Houston Marathon triumph where he "busted through" and achieved a long-sought personal goal of finishing a marathon in under 3 hours!

The timing of this email was incredible as we've recently discussed personal goals as Kate and Claire "age up" to join the ranks of thirteen and fourteen year old junior tennis players.

Marathon running like tennis, is an individual sport, requires personal goal setting and commitment to hard work and extra efforts in preparation for the big event(s), and often faces obstacles and disappointments along the way--until feeling the exhilaration of achieving one's goals.

The punch lines from Mark's email:

Final result 2:57:44, 2:47 PR, 85th overall, 16th in division

There are so many variables that go into our sport—training, family/work/running time balance, weather, injuries, sickness, race pace execution, euphoric periods during which you have to hold back, fatigue periods during which you have to kick yourself in the butt to get out of bed, …to name a few of the items that are mostly out of our control. All of those we are experiencing both individually and in the extended family training group make for a large number of unknowns. It's hard for an analytical guy like me to not be able to exactly quantify all of the inputs that go into the final result!

Why was today the day? Who knows! I guess the short answer is, the planets aligned and the variables all fell in my favor. I've toed the line in better shape in previous attempts, only to be denied painfully short of my goal.

Chicago 2002 – 3:00:46
Houston 2003 – 3:01:31
Austin 2003 – 3:00:32

But today was the day and I am sitting here in blissful contentment with the realization of having achieved a challenging goal.

From all of us, congratulations in achieving your goal and thanks for sharing such an inspirational story!

Posted by Jim at January 22, 2005 8:58 AM

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This morning I just read my brother Mark's email recap of his Houston Marathon triumph where he "busted through" and achieved a long-sought personal goal of finishing a marathon in under 3 hours! The timing of this email was incredible as we've recently discussed personal goals as Kate and Claire "age up" to join the ranks of thirteen and fourteen year old junior tennis players. Marathon running like tennis, is an individual sport, requires personal goal setting and commitment to hard work and extra efforts in preparation for the big event(s), and often faces obstacles and disappointments along the way--until feeling the exhilaration of achieving one's goals. The punch lines from Mark's email:

Final result 2:57:44, 2:47 PR, 85th overall, 16th in division There are so many variables that go into our sport—training, family/work/running time balance, weather, injuries, sickness, race pace execution, euphoric periods during which you have to hold back, fatigue periods during which you have to kick yourself in the butt to get out of bed, …to name a few of the items that are mostly out of our control. All of those we are experiencing both individually and in the extended family training group make for a large number of unknowns. It's hard for an analytical guy like me to not be able to exactly quantify all of the inputs that go into the final result! Why was today the day? Who knows! I guess the short answer is, the planets aligned and the variables all fell in my favor. I've toed the line in better shape in previous attempts, only to be denied painfully short of my goal. Chicago 2002 – 3:00:46 Houston 2003 – 3:01:31 Austin 2003 – 3:00:32 But today was the day and I am sitting here in blissful contentment with the realization of having achieved a challenging goal.

From all of us, congratulations in achieving your goal and thanks for sharing such an inspirational story!