aspirations

Mark has been into the stock market since a couple months before I started dating him, but in the last year he has really started to take it seriously. He is very smart with money, and he seems to make small amounts every week, occasionally big wins too, but then there are the rare losses that are larger then he likes. He just finished a course thru his bank on trading in the stock market and was a star student. It was interesting this week when he told me how he wished he would make it big in the stock market, and that he daydreams about it a lot even though he is pretty sure it won't happen. I realized what I daydream about at the gym today thinking about our conversation while reading my "Runner's World" magazine. Ever since I started running a lot (when my dad got sick) I have loved it. A year after my dad died I ran my first marathon, and while my time was not great, it was a great accomplishment. Since then I have been improving with almost every marathon I run, and I even got over my IT Band syndrome in the last 4 months and this week was the first week in over 6 months that I ran over 50 miles in 7 days. It felt amazing.

I was reading an article on famous runners and not famous runners, and I realized my aspirations (as unrealistic as they are) are to be an accomplished runner. I don't want to run in the olympics, but reading about women marathoners who do made me jealous. Their full time job is running. They run 100-120 miles a week, and as such spend 3-5 hours a day exercising, and eat about 4000 calories a day or more. Then there was an article on qualifying for the Boston Marathon, which even though I could run it (and have twice now) via the charity route, one of my goals in life is to qualify. Until I am 35 I have the same goal, to run a marathon in under 3:40, which means I qualify for Boston. The article talked about how competitive it was, and how most runners average 10 marathons before they qualify (which is good since I have only run 5 now). Plus that only 7.9% of men and women who run marathons every year my age (between 20-34) have beat the qualifying time. I know it keeps things unrealistic, but I can dream. Like Mark, I am going to cling to a goal, and mine will be to qualify for the Boston Marathon, and Mark's can be to make it big in the stock market. I know we both have what it takes, but we will also need a little luck, and probably more free time.

P.S. I am still obsessed with Ratatat and can't wait to see them in concert again.