Open Doors

"When one door closes, another door opens."

Boy did I sure feel like the "under four hour" door closed tight and locked on me when my speedwork fell through. And for the life of me I couldn't figure out where the other door opened. I looked and looked and all I saw was that same closed door.

Then I read this article and figured out that maybe I should stop running into that closed door 'cause all it keeps doing is beating me up. Or more truthfully, I keep beating myself up. It hurts to run into a closed door over and over again. What's the point?

So I am approaching this marathon a little differently than I was before. Instead of going for a TIME, my goal is to finish strong. I felt pretty good after the 20 miler and I would like to feel that good after the marathon as well. So that is my open door. Finishing strong.

And who knows, maybe by concentrating on finishing strong, I will still finish fast. Because sometimes when the door is closed, if you look closely, you can find an open sign on it and all you have to do is turn the knob and run on through. If not, at the very least I have run through the big open door to the finish line and that's really what counts.