Moving Marathon Messages

Moving Marathon Messages

This year for the first time the Marine Corps Marathon (www.marinemarathon.com) is providing “inspirational bibs” as part of race packet pick-up. These optional bibs – which have blank space on them to write your message – can be worn in addition to the regular race bib for motivation or to encourage spectators to cheer for the runner. Basically, your back becomes a mobile sign.

Although I’m not certain that I want to be wearing an extra bib for 26.2 miles, I do like having this opportunity to interact with everyone. Ah, but what to say? There are sooo many possibilities, and just a little postcard window in which to express it! Should I be somewhat self-serving and make sure I include my name so that hundreds of complete strangers can cheer for me by name? Perhaps “Go Ron!” or the more elementary, “Run! Ron! Run!”? That would be cool, but then there’s something about it that makes me just a tad uncomfortable. Too much limelight.

Then it occurred to me that maybe my message could be directed more for the other runners than for the crowd. I like the thought of coming up with something that might motivate my fellow runners. So I started brainstorming:

Because I Can!
Define Yourself.
Be. Do. Live!
Catch me!

Or I could lean more towards the humorous side:

Hop Onboard!
To the Bagels!
Taxi!!!
Iwo Jima or Bust!

Heck, maybe I should rent out the space on my back for advertising! “www.ronzhawaiifund.com”

Well, recently while I was still mired in this state of catch-phrase indecision, I went for a Sunday morning 20-miler with Mary Zielinski’s group down along the C&O Canal. It was a beautiful day for a run – a nice break from the summer heat – and after the 18th mile we started picking up the pace a bit, then a bit more, and then a bit more yet. Enough so that a few days later Mike Marino alluded to our “Where’s the fire finish” in an e-mail. I found that descriptor rather comical, and soon realized that I had another entry in the humorous category for my race day bib: Where’s the Fire?

Then it hit me. Sure, it’s funny on the surface, but on another level there’s something deeply profound about it, too. Where’s the fire? It’s within. We’re running a long ways here, folks, and most of us are driven by some kind of fire buried deep within our soul.

For some of us the fire is a deeply competitive spirit, whether that means motivation to win or place, beat a specific time goal, or simply find out what our own body can possibly accomplish. Others are heated by a more emotional fire. Maybe we run in memory of a loved one lost to cancer. Or we run to fight off hereditary heart disease and achieve fitness. Maybe we run for a brother or sister in Iraq. Or for a parent with Altzheimer’s. Maybe we run for a daughter with autism.

Whatever the source of fuel, that fire burns hot on race day. So, with apologies to Mike for taking his idea and running with it (so to speak), I’ll ask you what I plan to ask my 30,000 fellow runners on October 28.

Where’s the Fire?