MARATHON

There's been a lot of talk about marathons, lately.  Well, actually, I guess marathons have been around and chatted about for a very long time, but I've only really taken notice as of late.  I'm in no place where I'm physically capable or remotely interested in taking on such a challenge.  I'll leave that up to those more able to contend with such challenges.  People like comedian Bert Kreischer and hoards of other people.

There's a half marathon taking place tomorrow in my hometown.  It's got something to do with the City Police and raising awareness for crime or victims of crime or something.  I didn't really pay much attention to the tweet before I deleted it from the feed on my phone.  I'm not certain how a marathon raises awareness for such things, except maybe trains you for running away from criminals.  I don't know, but the one thing that did catch my eye was, half marathon.

"What constitutes as being a half of a marathon?" I wondered to myself, as I trekked up the stairs to my computer room, preparing to put finger to keyboard to search the internet for answers, before tapping out the first blog I've done since early-October of last year.  I thought, initially, that a marathon was any race that spanned a great distance.  However, if this was the case, couldn't just about any marathon be labelled as "half"?  For instance, if a marathon was a hundred miles in length, then a half marathon that was only, say twelve miles, certainly could not be called a 'half marathon'.  A specific number had to exist for any race to be deemed a marathon.

According to the old interwebs, a marathon is: A footrace being a little over 26 miles in length.  So I guess a half would be, obviously 13 miles and change.  So anything above that 26 miles is an Endurance race or what I perceive to be true torture.

A triumph of will over reason...  I like that one.  I have no will to ever attempt a marathon.  I'm physically unable to participate in a marathon of any kind.  For now, I'm just going to live vicariously through Bert Kreischer.  He possesses the one thing that I don't believe I have, the Mickey Mantle Gene.  If I do have the gene, then it exists in a different form which allows me the ability to pull off different kinds of feats.  For now, however, I'm going to continue to cheer on Mr. Kreischer.