I have set a goal for myself to run the Pikes Peak Marathon. It is thirteen miles up Pikes Peak and then you turn around and come back down. It is a stupid goal! Why would anyone do this? Yet every year at this time I see the list of people who did it and look with admiration at their names. The winner did it in 3:43:23, that is running up to 14,100 ft and then running back down. The winner of my age group ran it in 4:58:55. These times should inspire me instead they make me feel old! It isn’t enough to see that someone else can do it, but I didn’t make it this year so I moan about my lack of training and motivation. What is it about the impending 50 years old coming my way in just a year and four months that makes me inspired for stupidity and cower for a comfortable chair and blanket all at the same time? Perhaps it is the analogy the marathon is to my life, I might have made it to the top but the down hill still awaits!