I think I'm going to Boston

I'm not talking about the awesome song by Augustana, but rather, the Boston Marathon.  One of the things I have enjoyed about taking up running is that there is virtually no ceiling to what you can do with it.  There are tons of races to enter, and if that isn't your thing, you can just run for the hell of it.  I've gotten into the races.  I like them.  It's sort of nice to have something to gauge your improvement, if you care about such things.  I would say that I do.  I'm a lot more competitive than I lead on, and the nice thing about running is that I can continue to challenge myself.  I'm not really into trying to beat other runners at this point, except that I do like to see where I place in my age group and overall in races.  I supposed that could be considered competing.  Anyways, what I was saying is that throughout last year, I liked using the races to see if I was improving as a runner.

Running appears to be something that, if I can avoid any major injuries, something I'll be able to do as I get older, and something that enough people I know already participate in so that I'll always have people to lean on as I continue to run/race.  My story is most likely not any different than many other people, and frankly, not nearly as impressive as someone like Brian Sparks', my long distance running buddy.  But it is working for me, and if what I write about gets someone out on their feet for the first time and they find a new hobby that they enjoy, then that is just neat.  I still don't know that I have set any real goals for running, in terms of what exactly I want to do with it.  I mean, sure, setting little timing benchmarks is a short term thing, but over the course of the next year, three years, five years, etc., where am I going, exactly?

Or do I need to go anywhere at all?  I could just run for the sake of running, using it as a good exercise tool while trying my hardest to maintain my weight.  But I think I'd rather try to accomplish something with it.  This really isn't anything I've talked about before, except with Sparks, but I've got a goal in mind, and I hope to achieve it someday.  It'll take a ton of work, and I don't know that I've even got the energy/ability/patience/desire/etc. to make it happen.  All I know that I have it in my head that this would be considered a terrific goal over the long term, and I might as well try it, since I've got the extra time.

I want to run the Boston Marathon.  There it is. 

OK, so what does that mean?  What does that entail?  How does that happen?  It means, I've got work to do.  It entails a lot of time and miles.  And it happens by being fast.  Way faster than I am now, and frankly, way faster than I can even imagine running a single mile, let alone a marathon full of them.

I call it my "5-Year Plan".  I have not been at this for very long, so I am behind the curve with a lot of real runners that have been doing this since high school, and possibly earlier.  If anything, this is more like an experiment of sorts.  A regular, beer loving, non-athlete deciding to one day lace up the running shoes and qualify for the Boston Marathon?  Probably not totally unheard of, but at this time last year I certainly would have laughed at the idea of running 26.2 miles in under 3 hours and 10 minutes, which is what it would take to qualify, as well as being able to beat the online crowd for registration, but that is an entirely different issue.  I just figured that with running, I might as well try to run the most prestigious race out there, right?  Set those goals at the top?  If anything, I might get to go to some cool places, meet some cool people, and generally just enjoy putting my time in running races.  Could be worse, I suppose.  I figure that if I work at this for 5 years, I should be in a position to post a qualifying time.  If I don't be then, well, I don't.  No big deal.  I guess we'll see.

So make sure to sign up for the blog to be delivered to your email inbox over on the right hand side of the homepage, and follow me on twitter at @kyleseiwert, and I hope you enjoy what could be a hilarious crash and burn adventure, or a pretty fun story.  Thanks for reading, and if you like it, send it to your friends.  I'd like to keep the reader numbers up, otherwise they might yank my blog off the top of the Topeka Parks and Recreation website.  Also, please leave comments for some interaction.  And keep reading.  Seeing all the page views is an enormous boost to my already huge ego!  Until next time...later.