There’s a throwaway line in Die Hard 2: Die Harder (1990). Bruce Willis, once again scrambling through a somewhat confined space, pursued and pursuing terrorists, mutters to himself, “How can the same thing happen to the same guy twice?!” I always wished he kept that up in the ensuing sequels – “How can the same thing happen to the same guy thrice?!”… “How can the same thing happen to the same guy four times?!” “How can this happen a fifth time?”
Ben Stiller did a parody on his Emmy Award winning show that had John McClane trapped in a supermarket and he may have done a variation on the above – it’s been a long time since my Stiller days, both as fan and unpaid summer intern at his production company.
But I found myself thinking of all that as I headed back into the air to get on the road and to run a marathon (or two or three or in this trip four races in 8 days).
How can the same thing happen to the same guy at the end of this trip 398 times? Yes, I’m trying to make Pike’s Peak my 400th marathon so I’m on a mad scramble to get races in before August 19th. Even with this crazed itinerary, I will still need to find one more race to make it happen.
It is of course all so arbitrary. What difference does it really make? Is 400 really anything more special than 399 or 401? It’s just a number. It’s just a thing. I tend to imbue greater significance on moments, memories, goals, whatzits along base 5 timelines and I’m not alone. But the truth is everything matters … and nothing does. Will anyone care if it’s 399 or 407? No. What others might care about … and what I *should* care about … is not the quantity but the quality of it all. Of the race, of the time, of the life.
Instead I just seem to be going through the motions. And while there is something to be said for faking it until you make it, I don’t know anymore. I’m feeling more and more like a fake that won’t ever make it.
Not exactly the “yippie kai yay!” crowdpleaser to get you or me inspired for 26.2 miles.
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Tomorrow’s race, The Highest Road Race on Planet Earth, is a redo for me. I was here in many years ago and met some good folks I’d occasionally cross paths with – Terinda and David with whom I’ve occasionally posted some meet up pics here on the blog.
Here though is a shot of me from the Madison Marathon circa 2012.
We will see how I look tomorrow. The years and the miles have taken a toll.
