inspiration waveform
by vivek
my friend Sriram finished the New York City half marathon and had sent a mail out about it. out of no where, i found inspiration to do the same even though his previous chat conversation about this plan never got me to think of taking up the half marathon.
the last 2 days, i have been walking/jogging close to 1 hour in the morning and evening as a start towards preparing for the Helsinki city marathon.
the search for ‘half marathon Helsinki’ in google after Sriram’s mail returned links about the Helsinki city marathon to be held on 16th august, 2008. in the site i noticed the registration fee was 75 euro’s – little on the higher side for a person trying the marathon just out of impulse and intuition – so i decided to mail them about my interest to be part of it without having to register, the mail was returned back due to some server problems in the receiving side.
a few enquiry’s later, it was confirmed that non registered participants cannot run the marathon.
what a bummer! i feel a little deflated.
the walking/jogging has been great, since i am able to get some physical exercise and the early morning and evening blood flow going. i will not be stopping this, the now so called preparation, just because i am not planning to participate (never know, may be i might pay up just to give it a try – tomorrow is the last day for registration) in the Helsinki city marathon.
its been nice, inspired, excited and feeling good – feeling bad – feeling deflated and yet feeling good. a waveform of sort i guess.
This is bit complex for me comment. Let me put it this way.
Your heard from your friend about the Newyork marathon : You got inspired : Started jogging and walking : Came to know the fee’s is 75Euro : Got a bit deflated since you are first timer : But then, you decided not to stop this running/jogging just because you may/may not participate : Good decision!
From what you have written i see that 75Euro seems to be the biggest deflation. But is it worth to give up something which inspired you just because of 75Euro? I agree you are not going to stop jogging/running. That is different issue. Frankly speaking, after i read this i was just wondering “Is it really Vivek who is bothered about the 75Euro for the thing which inspired him”.
And in the website it’s mentioned
“Each runner finishing within 6 hours receives a Helsinki City Marathon medal. The following is a list of prizes for the best finishing times: Men: 1st 3 500 EUR, 2nd 2 000 EUR, 3rd 1 000 EUR ”
You can aim for the first three place or rather try to complete the race. If you are in the top three, your 75Euro gets paid off else i am pretty sure after you complete the race there will be this “personal satisfaction”, “a small happiness for what you did” that will remain forever. Many a times its all about WINNING others but sometime(rather all time) its more about how much we challenge ourself and WIN ourself our limitations. And the third possibility, if you have to retire, still you can cheer up because from the opportunity you know where you stand.
By no means i am trying to convince you to join the marathon. But why too of much dangling thoughts for this?????… In case you need good competitor on par with you, well i may try. If you finish before me i will pay for you. If i finish you pay for me. Is that fair enough?