In 2014 I ran my first marathon with a time that barely beat the course limit of 6 hours (5:51:02). In April 2015, I vacationed in Boston. It was the week before the marathon and race stuff was everywhere. I began to dream of someday running this race. The following September I improved my marathon time by about 45 minutes (5:04:36).
Realistically Boston was just a far off dream. I would need to run a marathon just under 4:10 to qualify…almost an hour faster. Still, I set a goal to do it in April 2018, giving myself a couple years. I began working with a coach, whose first response to my stated goal was, “that’s a goal!”(see That’s a goal!).
I knew it’d be very hard to achieve…and honestly, I had my own doubts. Which is the basis for a conversation that happened way back then.
It was with my friends Michele and Steve and it was about tattoos. I don’t remember it exactly, but I imagine we were talking about my daughter Megan’s latest tattoo. Somehow the conversation turned to the topic of whether any of us would actually do such a thing.
So I said, “If I qualify for Boston, I will get a tattoo.” Michele said, “If you qualify for Boston, I will get a tattoo.” Steve said, “Me too.”
And all of us probably thought to ourselves, “no way that’s going to happen.”
We went together last Friday to get our tattoos. We had a pact. So we did it!
I’ll write about the meaning of my own tattoo in another post.
When have you had to follow through on something you thought wouldn’t happen?
