A reminder to myself:

Dear RJR,

Please don't forget the day you woke up almost 23 months ago and decided you were going to run the Philadelphia Marathon. It was cold then too.  In fact, your first run was a layered mess of sweatpants and your high school cross country gear.  And it was painful too. 

Despite October rain and November frost, you are still the crazy one that took a whim and made it real; that took a dream, nailed it to the wall and stared at it every day for almost two years; and the one that likely kept Tiger Balm in the black in 2010.  You have run injured, broken, recovered and healthy.  Now, you run. 

And so, no matter the pain of that last 22 mile run, keep moving beyond it;

no matter the lack of sleep, turn all of the lights on, make some coffee and fight through it; and

no matter the ache, realize that it, like the beast of a run you just completed, will fade away steadily once you let go.

When it hurts, remember it only does so when you let it.  Raise your thoughts up and over the hurdle, accepting that it's only a bump and not a block, and reach your arms out to the finish line. 

You are a runner.  You are stubborn.  You don't know how to give up.  Call it endurance or determination or even stupidity - but call it something because it's what is going to push you over that finish line in 11 days.

Love, me.