This is it...

Twenty-five minutes of cycling today... that's it, except I'll try to jog for a few minutes on Saturday, all being well.

So there it is! In April I was a desk potato; six months later, marathon day is just about here. The outlook has changed rather drastically in the last few weeks; as the "taper" period approached, all seemed on course to be able to have a serious attempt at 3:30. Now, I think that my chances of finishing the marathon are probably about one in five or six - it seems very unlikely that my shin will let me do it; it keeps giving me strange twinges and I don't see how it can be in a state to do a marathon if it's healing from an injury like this.

I am, though, very privileged to have got to this point. It's been very enjoyable; I started from scratch, and have got to the point where I have a shot at making one of my little goals a reality - it's a thrill to be able to get from there to here. I've run a 22 mile run in training, and so know that I've done what I had to do to turn dream into reality inasmuch as I could.

I've had the privilege of experiencing another part of human life. Human experience is amazingly and fantastically diverse, and we can only experience a little part of it. I've enjoyed tasting on more. I know that the immensity of enjoyable human experience isn't a coincidence which happily "just happens" to be; I give God praise the amazing world that he has created. I know as well that my little goals in this kind of thing and whether I achieve them or not isn't the "big story" of history; that's Jesus Christ. I've really enjoyed the experience of planning, learning, training, improving, and so on. My wife has been wonderfully supportive of my latest mad scheme, and I will in all honesty likely not achieve what I set out to do.

Before I get to the start line on Monday (presuming no more incidents!) I'll have to try to erase the likelihood of failure from my thinking because it'll be irrelevant once the starter's gun goes. I intend to give it my best shot; I don't intend to stop running until my legs fall off. You can't do these things if the word "can't" exists in your thinking up until the point that you have no option at all. I'll give it my all, and we'll see what happens. Just because I say "one chance in four" doesn't mean I'm thinking I'm defeated already. I'm going for it; it's all or nothing! Dublin here we come!

David
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