Inspiration

This morning, I woke up early (yes, me, Monday morning, early--and yes, 9:30am is early for me!) to watch the Boston Marathon. For the everyday runner, Boston is the Holy Grail--the common athlete's Olympics.

Watching the coverage this morning was inspirational. I came to running through fitness, I came to distance running through charity, and I keep running because of my passion. I love running. And if I can't be out there running, I love to watch people who love to run run (yes, there will be a quiz about how many times I've used the words "love" and "run" in this blog)!

Kara Goucher was inspirational (and clearly, the woman never has a day like I did today--no visible tummy bloat in what is pretty much a bikini), making a great run for the win and finishing third. Ryan Hall was inspirational, and he also came in third. My TNT friends were inspirational. Jennifer placed 17th overall for females. Mike tore it up at 3:20ish. Amy and Kimberly both finished under four hours. Any athlete who was there today has proven him or herself to be the best of the best. And I want to be there one day. Yes, I'm putting it out there publicly. I, Laura Scholz, want to qualify for the Boston Marathon. By the time I'm 40. That gives me six and a half years to push myself and see what I can truly accomplish in this sport.

And yet, as I was out this afternoon running my measly four miles in Memorial Park, I thought not only of Boston, but of a 10K race a few years ago in Greenville, when I was one of the last runners to finish. As in, the motorcycle was following me. And how I could've gotten discouraged, because I was essentially in last place. It wasn't an incredibly slow pace--I think I finished around 1:22:00--but I was having a bad day. But I was having the best race I could on that day, and I was proud of what I was doing.

And yes, I've come really far from that day, but I think what matters in the end is that I dared to try. And every runner who enters a race of any distance at any level will tell you that the challenge is more about getting to that start line, rather than the effort to finish.

That's why I'm so incredibly proud of my Country Music Marathon team. They've seen their fair share of rainy days and cold days (sometimes both); they've tackled fundraising in a really challenging economy; they've persevered through job losses, injuries and illness; and yet, they'll all be there on Saturday morning at the starting line! And they've raised over $150,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Everybody wins.