I was supposed to be in LA this weekend.
I was supposed to be running the LA Marathon this weekend.
Two things can be true and two things can not happen at the same time.
The second race I’ve had to just completely write-off… and hopefully the last. The other events I’ve been able to defer at a minimal (and sometimes not-so-minimal) fee. But like the Lost Dutchman, the LA Marathong is a Lost cause.
As I endeavor to build back up my cardio and endurance, I had my first “long” run of the training regimen this morning. It was five miles. I ran about two before I got winded and had to start walking. I think I started crying around mile 3 out of frustration as I huffed and I puffed and I failed to run the remaining mileage.
This is an incredibly difficult time… due in no small measure to what once was and what I seem so far away from achieving again.
I suppose this is the real marathon – the work required to get back into shape and back out on the road. Was it Taylor Swift or somebody else who said, “People may envy what we are but they don’t seem to recognize or envy what it took to get there.”
This is a hard, hard weekend. Physically. Emotionally. And I try and get through it by telling myself I will get through it, that this too shall pass. But it isn’t always easy to believe that. Especially when the long run of the week was what I used to do as a warm-up run.
Injuries are cruel. But time may be the cruelest of all.
