There are all kinds of mountains to climb, rivers to swim and opportunities to test yourself against yourself as well as others. Our grandson, Joshua just sent us pictures of his participation in the swim, the "Escape from Alcatraz" Triathlon, he completed a few days ago. He looks good on a bike and running but there are no pictures of him escaping from Alcatraz. Josh and his brother, Jeremy, have run the Marine marathon together.
When I took up jogging while in my forties, it piqued the interest of my colleague, Julius Becza. He became a devoted runner and decided to run in the Washington, D. C. Marine marathon. This was not the triathlon in which Joshua participated this time. However, it was a point of pride that this man, a little younger than I, to pit himself against himself as well as the thousands who ran that day. Julius suffered a fatal heart attack while running. I was privileged to speak at his funeral.
But, I realize that the key point is to pit oneself against oneself in choosing to run in a 26 + mile trial. There are tri or iron-man or just the marathon inspired by the ancient Greek soldier, Phidippides, who ran from the Plains of Marathon to tell the Athenians that their side had won against the invading Persians. What is it that one is trying to prove?
Our modern day marathoners come out in the thousands in Boston, New York, Washington and this Escape from Alcatraz thing. It is great to be of any age and compete just for the plain joy of being able to finish and tell the tale. Julius did not survive his trial but he needed to tell himself that he could do it.
There are many such trials in life. Some, we run away from and some we run with to see how it goes. We never know if it can be done unless we lend ourselves to the moment and give it a try. My trial was to confront my weight and lack of exercise and I began to try to just run a quarter mile. It was exhausting at first, but I stayed with it until I found I could breathe better and felt better because of the exercise. I never did participate in a marathon. I did, however, rune three miles a day for a year or two before I turned fifty. I like to pride myself that I could run from home in Elberon to Asbury Park and back again (a 7 mile round trip) and then on the next weekend repeat the run.
Carol and I are very proud of our grandson, Josh. He has run marathons now from coast to coast. He has proved he can do it. He came in 700th out of two thousand runners. Not bad for a 35 year old guy who works in an office.