16974

that would be my la marathon runner number. the one that will be plastered to me front and back, rain or shine, as i ask myself for 26.2 miles what on earth i was thinking when i started training for a marathon. rather auspicious if i say so myself. i don't think i could have devised a better runner number if i'd tried! five months of training down and just six short weeks to the big day..

to put a little of the insanity in perspective .. a few recent stats:

according the the latest approximation of the U.S. population (298,026,631) and the total number of finishers of marathons last year (382,000), if you finished a marathon you are in top one tenth of ONE PERCENT of the population who has done so.

then, figure in:
* multiple marathon finishes by single runners
* non US citizens who do not count for the total population who ran a marathon and you are even more elite!


sure somebody is faster than you and it may have taken you 5 hours (or 6 or 7) to finish, but hey, even if all the people who ran a marathon last year ran it at the same time, and you came in DEAD LAST you would still have done more that 297,644,631 lazy asses last year.

now, back to deciding which marathon to train for next while you think about where you put the remote :)

in all seriousness friends, six months ago, i'd never run a mile in my life. if i can successfully train for a marathon, ANYONE can!