The Purpose of Purpose

Battling the elements at the front of a group
in the 2012 Lake Effect Half Marathon

Lately I have been thinking a great deal about purpose. Perhaps this is a byproduct of winter marathon training and battling what seems to be a never-ending deluge of polar vortexes. When your eyelids are frozen open by wind and sleet, and you’ve lost all sensation in your appendages, the “what am I doing” question plays like a song on repeat with every consecutive mile. To train for a marathon at any time, you have to be, what polite friends call, quirky. To train for a marathon through an upstate New York winter, you have to be downright crazy.

In Pursuit

A few evenings ago, despite my best intentions to head to bed early and get some much needed recovery from my current training, I instead became wrapped up in one of my favorite movies, The Pursuit of Happyness. In the tear-jerker of a film, Will Smith plays real life "obstacle-hurdler", Chris Gardner who overcomes an avalanche of adversity to become a successful stockbroker. Yes, the movie even manages to make stockbrokers sympathetic characters, and it is guaranteed to make your stomach turn at the thought of the excuses you've made over the past week.

Running with Jason

In his classic book, The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner, Alan Sillitoe wrote, “the long-distance run of an early morning makes me think that every run like this is a life- a little life, I know- but a life as full of misery and happiness and things happening as you can ever get really around yourself.” When I first read Sillitoe’s book, the solitary, individual journey his protagonist, Smith, takes as a young man – using running as a vehicle of rebellion – spoke to my typically angst-filled youth. Through the fictional Smith, and later living running heroes like Steve Prefontaine and Roger Bannister, I learned to believe that the purist form of distance running occurred alone and simply. A man and the miles became my definition of running, which lasted long into adulthood.

I Hope My Kids Run

By the next time you read an article from me, I will likely be a father. Coupled with the sleepless, anxious nights, the midnight trips to Target, and the general bustle of chaos that has surrounded this journey, I have spent the last nine months doing a fair bit of reflection about the upcoming years of child-rearing.