Newton's first law of motion (or, the law of inertia)

Every body remains in a state of rest or uniform motion (constant velocity) unless it is acted upon by an external unbalanced force. This means that in the absence of a non-zero net force, the center of mass of a body either remains at rest, or moves at a constant speed in a straight line.

-- Isaac Newton, Principia Mathematica (1687)

So, what this means in a nutshell is that a body at rest tends to stay at rest, or a body in motion tends to stay in motion.  That's me.  I'm fundamentally lazy - I like my life in a state of organized chaos.  My principal fear about writing this blog is that I'll start it, write a few articles, and then stop, never to come back.  Hopefully the external force being applied will help... You see, the force is strong with this one.

Anyhow, a little bit more about why I decided to do the marathon, why Team in Training, and why I'm writing this blog.

The Marathon

Beginning ultimately when I moved to San Francisco in 2006, I started running - for exercise, as a form of stress relief, and just because I live in one of the most scenic cities in the world.  When I went to Australia for several months for work in early 2007, that love of scenery went with me, and I ran daily - either around the inner Sydney harbour, or around the Royal Botanic gardens in Melbourne.  I got into a state of fitness that even smoking, eating poorly, and drinking copious amounts of alcohol every night didn't affect me.  When I came back, I was a lean 153 lbs, and was running on average 10-15km per day.

That summer, I signed up for the San Francisco Marathon on a whim, two days before the race, while I was out eating lunch on a friday with a workmate.  I was to do the half, and never having run a race before, I was looking forward to it.  Well, I ran the half, completed in 1:53, and was ultimately out of commission for 6 months with an IT band injury. 

If you've never had one, IT band injuries suck.  Hard.  There's this big ligament that runs from your hip to your knee, and ultimately controls the range of movement in your leg.  The most common injury for runners is what's known as IT band friction syndrome, and that's what I had.  Fucking painful, it makes you ultimately unable to walk until you go through copious amounts of physical therapy, and learn to roll out the IT band after each and every exercise.

So really, the marathon is about completing what I started... and ultimately seeing if I can do the big race in under 4 hours without sustaining another injury.

Why Team in Training (TNT)?

This has been a ... challenging... year for me.  Without getting into too many details, I was married and divorced over the course of a single year, took a challenging new job, and moved from the city to Mountain View.  Most of my friends are either in Vancouver or Seattle, and I needed to meet new people.  Team in Training is a charitable organization that raises money for Cancer, advertises on the radio, and I know lots of people who have done it and loved it - meeting new friends over the course of the training.  So, it was mostly about meeting new people.  It also has the positive offshoot of a structured training program (good for preventing stupidity-induced injuries... see above).

I know this sounds sad, but the cancer thing didn't even really play into my decision at the time.  I'll get into why this is sad in a later posting.

Why blog?

I have a terrible memory for certain things, but I love new experiences and meeting new people.  This is a way for me to remember the journey, and get some thoughts out on "paper" without having to worry about what I'm saying. 

I also have to raise money for TNT.  When you join, you commit to raising a certain dollar amount.  In my case, it's $3100.  The money goes to fund cancer research, as well as to pay for my entry into the race and food etc during the two days in honolulu.  I've committed to this dollar amount, which basically means that I'm on the hook for $3k if I don't raise enough money.  I HATE HATE HATE asking people for money, even when it's for a good cause.  So, read the blog, think about the people who benefit from the fundraising efforts of TNT, and please, donate.  My fundraising page can be found here: http://pages.teamintraining.org/sj/honolulu10/dfraleigh

Many companies even match donations - so $50 from you may actually mean $100 to Cancer research.  I'm doing the easy part - running 26.2 miles around diamond head in Waikiki in december.  Those who have cancer, and their families are the ones who are doing the hard part. 

So yes -- appealing to the public for donations is one of my primary reasons for the blog.

Let's hope I can continue keeping an external unbalanced force on the effort.

Cheers
Dave