So, as per the last post, I ran the Berlin marathon last weekend, and lived to tell the tale. My net time for the course was 3:58:21 – not Kenyan territory, to be sure, but I was satisfied with it. I certainly wasn’t expecting to run under 4 hours; of course having done it before (personal best: 3:43:52) I knew it was within the realm of possibility, and I did feel pretty good for the first 25km or so. But I also knew there was potential for problems – it was hot, for one thing, and my training year has not been absolutely smooth sailing. In fact I developed a cramp in my left thigh at 27k that felt potentially threatening, but a bit of walking and light massage seemed to quell it and it didn’t resurface, at least not noticeably.

In a week’s time I will run a marathon. It’s not my first, so the nervousness is mitigated a bit, and even though it’s been a while I know I’ve trained enough to finish and have a reasonably enjoyable time doing it. Nevertheless it is still a challenge, a mountain to climb, and it still takes some willpower and mental stamina to follow through…

The particular leap of faith that I am about to take has in fact been a long time coming, and a long time in preparation. I realize that seems a little contradictory but remember, jumping off cliffs (whether real or metaphorical) can be a dangerous business and preparation is not necessarily anathema to the essence of the jump. It just happens that this is kind of a major undertaking, and while it is very much a leap into the unknown, I want to at least have all my raw ingredients in place before I let too many people in on what I’m cooking up. Don’t worry; once the oven is warm, it’s going be very much an open kitchen kind of affair.

I am fascinated by moments in life when we have to confront fear, rise above it, move beyond it… and in the process learn something about ourselves, our limits, and our ability to surprise ourselves. This is not going to be about physically jumping off of cliffs. I’m not absolutely opposed to doing this, and I’ve jumped off a few in my time – more on this shortly – but generally it’s dangerous and probably a really bad idea unless you’re really sure what you’re doing and that you can do it safely. The fact that people die doing it fairly frequently is sad testimony the fact that it often isn’t as safe as someone thought it was.