Post-Boston

[El Gordo]

You chaps have an important intellectual role in life. You don't just turn-up, run around, collect your medal and bugger off. To that extent you're certainly not box-tickers. You draw meaning from your experiences and that becomes more important than how 'good' the experience was. It's people like you, telling the stories of races like Boston and TOM, who inspire others to do it.

I'm never very comfortable being told that I inspire anything, but the comments are appreciated. You're right -- we ALL recognise that at our level, running isn't actually much to do with running. We can still feel competitive (even if it's only our past performances we're pitched against), but the activity is bound up with all sorts of other complicated stuff, and I for one feel compelled to want to tell people about it. Because it's marvellous and fascinating and enriching. Even when it's horrible, and even when we feel disappointed. Perhaps it's on these occasions we appreciate it more than ever.