The symmetry of 42 (kilometers) at 42 (years of age). After over 16 years since my last marathon (in Los Angeles)–which was 26 (miles) at 26 (years of age)–I decided that I needed to prove to myself that I’ve still got it in me. Or perhaps I just needed a concrete goal to rally around and get myself into shape. Either way, when my friend Oliver told me that he was going to run his first marathon in Beijing in about 3 months, I barely hesitated before volunteering to do it with him. That night I created our training schedule and we pushed each other (along with a third friend, Mark, who joined us for some of our runs) pretty hard.
It paid off, as we both finished all 42km along with thousands of other runners (in all there were 30,000 runners, including the 10K, half marathon and full marathon). I broke four hours (3:58)–my primary goal–although I didn’t achieve my stretch goal of 3:45. Nevertheless, we were absolutely blessed with clear beautiful weather in Beijing and it was a great race.
On a related note, I ran the race in my Vibram Five Fingers shoes and was able to meet / join a group of other VFF fans. I must say that my VFFs have changed the whole running experience for me … they’re amazing!
