When you fall off the horse...

There have been times in my life when I felt that I have been on top. I have felt like I have been in the driver's seat and nothing and nobody could stop me from achieving my potential. There have also been tough times-challenges and obstacles to overcome. Right now, I am neither on top or on the bottom but I feel like I need to be achieving something and not living life so stagnantly. One of my favorite quotes is by Theodore Roosevelt, and it really sums up how I've been feeling this summer:

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

"Citizenship in a Republic,"
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

I'm not in bad shape right now, and I've been keeping up with my school work, and making it to Mass (most of the time), but I feel that I need to be giving so much more for myself, for other people, and for God.

Against my better judgment, I have decided to train for the Route 66 Tulsa Marathon again. I feel it will be a good way to rebuild myself physically, mentally, and spiritually. I started a 17 week "4 Months to a 4 Hour Marathon" Program on Monday and am really looking forward to getting into some of those long runs again in the hills of south Fayetteville. There really is nothing like getting into a steady pace and running with the sunrise to contemplate life and everything it brings.

I look forward to keeping a blog to journal my journey toward a 4:00 marathon and hopefully becoming a better, stronger person along the way.

Mike