What's my Secret?

“What was the secret, they wanted to know; in a thousand different ways they wanted to know The Secret. And not one of them was prepared, truly prepared to believe that it had not so much to do with chemicals and zippy mental tricks as with that most unprofound and sometimes heart-rending process of removing, molecule by molecule, the very tough rubber that comprised the bottoms of his training shoes.”

This is the passage that immediately precedes the famous “Trial of Miles, Miles of Trials” quote from Once a Runner, by John L. Parker, Jr. (a great read by the way).

The character from Parker’s book was training for the mile, attempting to conquer the elusive 4:00, but the same philosophy holds true for marathon training.

I can only hope that over the course of over 500 miles of training during the past 18 weeks, my tracks contain enough of those molecules of eroded rubber.

I’ll find out in four more days.