(ED NOTE: Former RRCA State Rep and Howard Country Striders President Mick
Slonaker sent this to me, I thought I would share it. Mick will be leaving us
soon to spend some time overseas, best wishes to him on his new ventures.)

When I was cleaning out the house (what else have I been doing for
weeks? :), I found this article from the Wash Post that I saved. The
article was about a NYC female, Russian marathon winner who was
running through the pain of the tragic death of her husband. In the
article, the author, Mike Wise, makes some comments about the marathon
that I liked and thought I'd share it with you.

"... The numbers of novice marathoners keep spiking exponentially.
Why? With too much emotional baggage to fit in the overhead
compartment, so much introspection and self-analysis taking over
Western culture, running has become the perfect anitdote for the
modern American life.

From personal experience, there are things worked out in your head on
a run that cannot be worked out on a couch or in conversation, a
clarity only a physical journey can bestow. Something, about the
solitary beat of your arches hitting the ground, the monotonous beat
of bone, lungs, and heart, takes you away from whatever was gnawing at
you before you made the decision to put on your shoes and walk out the
door.

At its apex, training for a marathon dispenses order and control in
the mind of the disciplined, the idea that life does not happen to you
as much as your choices and decisions happen to you. Luck and
happenstance are not why you made it to the starting line; they are
both a residue of your own design. "

Mick

Note: forwarded message attached.

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