What's the Purpose of Running a Marathon Anyway?

This was just one question of many that Mary asked Saturday. We were in Nashville for Ray to run the Country Music Marathon and Rachel to run the half marathon. I was struggling with a good answer at the moment. Later Rachel was talking about some of her experiences on the course and it became more clear to me some of the reasons. She was ready to give up at about four minutes away from the finish line when she looked over and saw a man with one leg "just hopping along." She was really inspired to keep going. Running long distances requires more of a person than they think they have. They have to push their bodies to do something they aren't sure they can do. It is something that I don't quite understand, but at the end there is an amazing sense of accomplishment, especially for those who have to work hard for the finish.

It is inspiring to sit (notice I'm sitting, not running) at the finish line to see people of all ages, sizes, stages of life to cross. There are some who trot across as if there was no effort and those who are pulling themselves and others through the end. I love to watch this one elderly man in particular. He is wearing a Team in Training coach jersey and he runs in to the finish line with someone on his team, then just before he crosses the line he turns around and runs a half mile to pick up and run with another team member to the finish line. His job is to encourage others to finish the race. He probably runs the full marathon by just running his team members in to the finish line. There is so much going on during marathons that don't know, but the blue man, the juggler, the girls dressed like Dolly Parton, and the soccer player all have their own stories. This year marked the first death at the Country Music Marathon by someone who had his own story. The 26 year old man was a special ops Army soldier who died at the finish line of cardiac arrest.

The weekend was full of reading, meeting and hearing about those who are running for their own reasons. It was also fun for our family to get together to celebrate the hard work of training that Ray and Rachel had put in over the past few months. Yes, Ray will probably loose some toenails from this but he is recovering at a great pace. Rachel doesn't even act like she just ran 13.1 miles. What is is with 19 year olds anyway? Don't they know their bodies will wear out one day?