Feelings on Boston and Lance's Retirement

I'm not a fast runner, marathon or otherwise. I'm more of a mid to back of the pack runner. I like to run with my friends and my biggest goal is to someday finish under 4 hours. There's not age I need to be when I do it. I don't need someone to tell me that I'll have to run faster to achieve that. I'm not sure how I'd be feeling if Boston was a goal of mine. I would probably disheartened, discouraged and upset or maybe I would feel just like I do now. I do know that I have heard from some runners who are not happy about these changes. They will have less of a chance to register if they are close to their BQ cut off time. They will lose that 59 second grace time on the minute cut off. They will have to work so much harder to drop their times low enough to qualify in the future. I don't disagree with the BAA practices and changes I just feel for those people who have worked so hard to get close and may loose their chance. I do think that with more people running, and running faster for that matter, it is making the chances of meeting the current/old times more attainable with a good strong consistent effort. That is a lot of runners who qualify,  a lot more than the number of qualifying spots available for the Boston Marathon. As a runner with a young family I don't see it in my future. I don't have the time or ambition to put into it and my heart is more about getting others into running than running marathons fast myself. I have a hope that coaching will bring some of that competitive energy back to the future but its not a burning desire yet. So If you want to qualify for Boston you have a lot of work cut out for you. Go out there and do your work... and I'll watch your times as you cross that Boston line.

Lance is Re-retiring from cycling to spend more time with his family. His name is on one of the most successful charitable organizations to bring funds and education to one of the deadliest diseases in the world. He obviously adores his family and his fame on the bike has given him a name to use for a good thing. I personally don't think that he is a selfless, humble, innocent man. I think that he wouldn't be the kind of man I would want to marry or have a family with (although I do adore his ex-wife Kristen Armstrong's blog). I do think that his body was made to do amazing things and he did them... with or without doping. I really could care less if he did or didn't use drugs. I think his children are old enough to read the information that is out there the truth, the theory, the lies, the not so subtle comments that some people might be making about their father. Lance and I are very different but we have a few things in common, we ran a marathon (although he was A LOT faster) and we are both cancer survivors. So I'm not going to bash him. I'm going to forgive without knowing all his faults. I'm going to keep wearing my yellow bracelet and running or volunteering for the LiveStrong run in our little community in October. I'm going to tell my kids that being the best they can be without using pills or shots or drugs is the only way to truly win and you are not only cheating yourself but your friends, your coaches, your peers, your competitors, by "doping" in any way. I'll tell my children the truth, that dignity and honesty are more important than winning. I only hope that Lance knows that too.