Marathon man: tying up the laces to race

Sports – The MSU Exponent

Ever since 490 B.C. when a soldier named Pheidippides ran 25 miles from the battlefield to Marathon, Greece to declare victory over the Persians, runners have been fascinated to the point of replicating this obscene distance known as a marathon.
The mileage changed from 25 miles to 26.2 at the London Olympics in 1908. Queen Alexandra requested that the distance be extended to 26.2 miles so it would reach the East lawn of Windsor Castle, that way the royal children would be able to watch the race from their nursery.
Since then millions of people attempt to run marathons every year. In 2013 I joined this moronic crusade. It began on a whim in Des Moines, Iowa in 2013. My friend and I were considering running a 5k when I saw there was a marathon coming up in three months. It wasn’t something I had ever seriously considered, but I enjoy running and figured why not?
Let’s go back for a second. To be clear, the organizers of the marathon just gave up on the 25 mile tradition so the precious queen didn’t have to leave her palace? Seriously? You couldn’t just get the queen into a horse and buggy and travel to a nice building with shelter and food at the finish line? I struggle with the last 1.2 miles of the race for that? Okay, okay back to it.
Now a few years later I have attempted to run three marathons and have finished two. I can certainly make a list of all the reasons why someone shouldn’t run the race but, for me, the positives outweigh the negatives. This is why I started training again for the Missoula Marathon in July.
Each and every day I lace up my running shoes after putting on some ridiculous looking running clothes to suffer my way through the miles. No matter the weather, I ...


Read more