I had a dream last night that I was getting into the marathon again.
It was the night before.
I used to, but don’t dream often anymore. As a kid, it was so reliable that whatever horror movie was watched that night, was going to be a very vivid nightmare just a few hours later. There was lots of horror.
(Today, I love horror, and don’t dream in my sleep as often.)
The fact that this was a dream about having the night that repeated a trial from years ago, all over again, surprises me less. There’re two reasons)
1) Saturday meet-up with old friends = people talking about it. (In 2015 the night before the nyc marathon was halloween, which lead to what was for the lack of a better phrase: an epic party.)
2) Writing a new book.
I don’t want to be too cheesy, but I mean it. The special thing that marathon running and novel writing has in common for me is there’s a prep period, a go period, and a review period. But right before and during that go phase, there’s another kind of “I’m doing it, and this might be effort that gets halfway there and for some reason lands me on my ass, but I doubt it.”
The real threat of these things is usually doing it, and then being dissatisfied with your result. If you’re strong enough, the negatives are usually temporary and you’re even able to really enjoy yourself at certain points.
There is a certain mindset that comes into knowing, and expecting of yourself to do the insane thing. It resonates when you want to do the long thing right your way.
Anyway, good dream.