This past weekend I ran a nice 15 miler in the cool morning fog near my mother's house in northwest NJ prior to visiting with my second youngest brother for lunch to celebrate his birthday. From there, the weekend was a bit of a roller coaster.

I was scheduled to run the NJ Marathon as the 3:30 pace leader, which I did on Sunday morning - finishing in 3:29:34, but Saturday afternoon was absolutely brutal. The temperatures were in the low 40's with howling winds coming in off of the ocean at 35 MPH all accompanied by a persistent misty rain. The pre-race expo was tightly constrained within its big top tent and the crowd was incredibly thick with nervous first timers. I attended the pasta dinner and offered advice and encouragement to a few of those rookies over pasta and salad before a less than appealing hour long drive to the Paterson area where I was staying with my best friend from high school. After 3 hours of sleep, following 2 hours of Gauntlet on the Xbox360, we pointed the car south on the Garden State Parkway and arrived an hour before the start.

Race weather was nearly perfect, especially considering what it looked like just 12 hours earlier, 52-degrees, intermittent breeze off the water, overcast for the first hour. Locking in the pace took about 4 miles while the crowds broke apart and I could corral my group into a relatively cohesive unit so that we hit the 1/2 marathon together at 1:45, right on target. Of course this was while I was battling persistant lower GI pressure that forced me to make a pit stop at the next row of port-a-johns 4 minutes later. Fortunately, I was able to catch up with my group again less than 2 miles later after pushing my pace down to 7:00. Unfortunately, this wouldn't be the only time I had to make use of this tactic during the day.

During my second multiple mile game of catch-up I avoided all of the negative thoughts that would have killed my chances of catching up and getting back on the pace to fulfill my mission, to help other runners reach the finish at their target time of 3:30. I focused on the positive experiences from my recent Boston Marathon. I thought of how I overcame the hills, the heat, the sun, the wind, and a much more prolonged period at a similar pace. I focused on my successes and on the successes of those I had met that weekend; from champions such as Joan Benoit, Lance Armstrong, Ryan Hall, and Pam Reed to the countless number of everyday heroes with whom I shared the road that fine Monday morning. I tried to put this into words just before mile 24 for a runner who needed some additional motivation, and a bit of distraction, but I don't think it came across so well while my pace slowly pulled me away from her. Then again, I don't think it is coming across so well here either so I will just end this as I started - Find your inspiration to keep going, to keep fighting, to keep running - and keep it handy because you never know when you might need it.