The New York Marathon Experience - November 3 of 2003

The Power of a Dream

It must be at least seven years ago when I was watching the running of the New York Marathon on TV that the excitement of such a magnificent event, planted the seed of a dream in my mind, a dream of one day being a part of an event like that or better yet, to be a participant in the New York Marathon.

Dreams are very powerful motivators, every person that has reached high levels in their sport, their business, their hobby, their family life or any other endeavor has had a dream. A dream, much like a goal, sets a path for us to travel. When we start traveling down the path, the excitement of fulfilling that dream is what allows us to overcome the obstacles and find the courage to do what it takes to reach our goal. Large or small, long term or short term; have a dream or a goal and you will create a path to achieve something.

For me, the dream of being a part of the New York Marathon came true a few days ago when I was one of the almost 35.000 participants that completed the 34th version of this event. Because those interested in running and familiar with this kind of events are better grounded with numerical results, I will tell you that my chip time was 3:57:11 and I was faster than 27.000 other runners.

If you are thinking; one has to be crazy to dream about running for almost four hours, what kind of a dream is that? Let me answer this way: the actual running of the marathon is only a small part, it is just to obtain a statistic associated with the destination. The great value lies in the journey.

The journey is what takes place between the seed of the dream starting to germinate and the time the plant yields it's first flower. In my case I would say that the journey started in earnest on Nov 2 of 2001 as a life spectator of the event. The first beautiful flower that germinated from that seed reached full bloom on November 3 of 2003 when I crossed the finish line of the New York Marathon with a tremendous sense of achievement and satisfaction.

So my dear friend, do you have a dream?

Let me tell you more about this journey.

The New York Marathon is a very large event, since there are more people interested in running than those allowed to run, they have a lottery to choose the 35.000 participants. I put my name in the lottery for the first time in 2001, I was not selected. That year, my niece Zakieh had her Batmitzvah in New York on Marathon weekend and I had the opportunity to witness part of the event live, as a spectator standing around mile 23 on the course. From there, I was watching and encouraging people of all sizes, colors, nationalities and fitness levels. People, a multitude of people, with one common goal, with one common dream, to run a marathon, to run the New York marathon. The emotions I experienced just being there yelling names of people I did not know and would never meet is indescribable. The emotion of seeing scores of New York fire department runners and other groups remembering victims of the recently occurred Sept 11 attacks was indescribable. Sometime during that highly emotional morning, the seed of a dream started to germinate, the path was created.

So I had a dream and I was determined to realize it. No matter how determined we are to doing something, determination alone is not enough. We need to prepare ourselves mentally and physically. We need to train ourselves mentally and physically. We need to learn new skills. We need to acquire new habits. We need to obtain the tools that will allow us to fulfill our dream. We need to start. 

I wanted to run a marathon, 26.2 miles, and the longest I had ever run was about 6 miles this would have been a good excuse to stop right there and say: "well, of course I can't do this". Instead I focused on a more important and useful question:  How can I do this? What would I need to do to get there? How have others done it?

And so I began my journey.

Not long after returning to California from New York, I attended and informational session of Team in Training, the fund raising arm of the Leukemia and Lymphoma society of America. This group is dedicated to training regular people to compete in endurance events. In return, athletes raise funds for a very good cause, to try to find a cure for blood borne cancers.

So I signed up to run the Anchorage Midnight Sun marathon and committed to raising $ 5,000 to help find a cure for Blood related cancers. What a wonderful experience this was. Be surrounded by great people who are sharing a purpose and supporting each other. Be improving yourself mentally and physically every week. Be overwhelmed by the incredible generosity of people that are ready to help a good cause. The universe really comes together and help you when you have a good purpose and you work to achieve it. You can read more about that marathon here.