This journey has to start somewhere so why not from a time when I had no idea what a marathon was? Sure, I always enjoyed a good run around the neighborhood now and then but I was never one to participate in many races. Near the end of college I knew a girl that spoke of this mysterious event like it was the creme de la creme of running events. Being a numbers guy, I just thought 26.2 miles was a ridiculous distance. Not because it was far, it was because of the .2! It doesn't translate to a round number on the metric system (roughly 42.16 kilometers). Why not 26 miles? Or, 42 kilometers?!
Now I had a bone to pick with the creator of this mysterious race. The least I could do was to run it and determine for myself what was so magical about this 0.2 miles at the end. Of course, that meant I was probably going to have to run more than 5 miles in my training for this. Because I was bullheaded, or simply because the internet wasn't necessarily the wealth of information that it is now, that was how I structured my training for my first marathon; the 2001 Chicago Marathon...and that's probably what led to me loathing the marathon during and immediately after that race! But, like most marathon runners will tell you, it spurred an immense interest in the race and I've been running them ever since. However, before any of you continue reading, I should warn you of this SPOILER ALERT - There is absolutely nothing special about the final 0.2 miles except that I can usually see beer and food waiting for the finishers from this point!
There's no one happier than this bear with a beer after a race...
A Map Showing A Sub-3-Hour Marathon In Each State
Blue dots are the 50 sub-3 marathons and green are the 10 missed attempts since my 1st sub-3-hour marathon at the 2009 Boston Marathon
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