<div><b><span style="font-size: large;">Mother Nature gave me an out.</span></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Taking place late February, the Hyannis Marathon was supposed to be my first full marathon. However, thanks to the worst snowfall in Massachusetts history...it was cancelled.&nbsp;<b>I easily could've bailed. </b>I could've just kept quiet, done the other races on my list, and never brought up "26.2" again.</div><div><br /><b>But I didn't.</b><br /><b><br /></b>And now I'm sitting in a hotel room in Maine. And in 11 hours I'll be standing in the starting corral of the 2015 Maine Coast Marathon...<b>my first marathon.</b><br /><b><br /></b><br /><div style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qcvY942YDfE/VU7GlXkB2pI/AAAAAAAAZhY/MT_w8IGu5L8/s1600/Screenshot%2B2014-12-29%2B20.19.28.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="140" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qcvY942YDfE/VU7GlXkB2pI/AAAAAAAAZhY/MT_w8IGu5L8/s400/Screenshot%2B2014-12-29%2B20.19.28.png" width="400" /></a></div><b><br /></b>Holy crap...<br /><a name='more'></a><br /><b><span style="font-size: large;">Oddly enough, I'm not nervous.</span></b><br /><b><br /></b>I've got this weird little sense of peaceful certainty going on. I was reasonably confident in my training when it was time for Hyannis to happen...but the last two weeks alone have shown me that I can not only finish this race, but I can hit my goal time too.<br /><br /><b><span style="font-size: large;">So why didn't I bail?</span></b><br /><br /><b>I had already made the decision.&nbsp;</b>The scariest part was already done - <i>I had registered for the Hyannis Marathon. </i>Making the decision and clicking "register now"...it was like a switch flipped. Things were different. I was no longer afraid of the big bad marathon. It was no longer up on a pedestal - a mythical "I'll never do that" thing to be brushed off and nervously laughed about in conversation. In that moment...it became something to me.<br /><br /><b>So when Hyannis was cancelled...</b><br /><b><br /></b>There wasn't a sense of "relief" that I no longer "had to do it". Instead...I went through a range of emotions akin to the 5 stages of grief! I was in disbelief...in <i>denial</i>&nbsp;that it had been cancelled. Then I was angry as all hell. Then I was sad that all that effort, anticipation, and excitement was for naught. And finally I accepted it.<br /><br /><b>But then...there was still a void.</b><br /><div style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-e2FVL7g7buo/VU7JlhByY7I/AAAAAAAAZhk/J74qN2llSdQ/s1600/2015-05-09_22.57.36.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="281" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-e2FVL7g7buo/VU7JlhByY7I/AAAAAAAAZhk/J74qN2llSdQ/s320/2015-05-09_22.57.36.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Almost immediately during the "denial" bit I started looking for other marathons in New England. I had to do it. And I found one. I found IT. The best option for my first marathon without waiting until fall. The Maine Coast Marathon. A gorgeous course through Kennebunk, the Maine coast, Kennebunkport, and then the Maine coast again. A great finisher's medal and post-race celebration. Hell, I can even get a finisher's jacket! In my favorite color!<br /><br /><b>And here I am.</b><br /><br />And by the time I cross that finish line tomorrow...I'll have travelled a lot farther than 26.2 miles.<br /><br />You'll never know what you're capable of until you take the plunge and try. See you on the other side.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Thanks again to <a href="http://facebook.com/CapeCodNutritionCorner.Plymouth" target="_blank">Cape Cod Nutrition Corner</a> for sponsoring me!</i></div>