Marathon!

I've been thinking - and talking - about this for a while now, and today I did it: Registered to walk the Portland Marathon, taking place in October. I did a couple of 20+ mile walk-a-thons (remember the Nerf football Ed?) and a few long distance bike rides in my teens, but let's just say it's been a while since I did any endurance events.

Emotionally it feels a bit like this.

I was taking a long walk several weeks ago and the Rush song "Marathon" came on the iPod; the perfect song for that moment. It wasn't the direct reason I signed up today, but it did start me thinking. The lyrics do inspire me:

You can do a lot in a lifetime
If you don't burn out too fast

Lyricist Neil Peart, in an interview with Canadian Composer magazine, said the song "is about the triumph of time and a kind of message to myself (because I think life is too short for all the things that I want to do), there's a self-admonition saying that life is long enough. You can do a lot -- just don't burn yourself out too fast trying to do everything at once. Marathon is a song about individual goals and trying to achieve them." Couldn't agree more, Neil!

Musically, the song starts grandly with some big chords, then kicks into a nice loping beat with a killer bass riff. Great walking pace!



See you down the road!