Today on an eight mile walk with my aunt, we talked about a lot of things. Among those many topics of conversation, was mon raison d'être. When I ran my first marathon eight years ago, I kept running and running and running, because I really wanted to run in Olympic Trials for the marathon. All of the running I have done from 17 to 26 in the marathon has been motivated by my desire to run Olympic Trials for the marathon. However, as I have matured as a marathon runner through the years, I feel as though when I am 29 when Olympic Trials for the marathon comes around again that I will be very satisfied with my 12 year career of the marathon distance. By the time I am 29, I really hope that I am overjoyed or extremely happy with times I have run NYC, Boston and Berlin. My goal is to feel good about all the races I will be running before 2024 so that my entire purpose of running the marathon is much less running solely for running in Olympic Trials, rather achieving a different standard of racing or PR or being the best athlete I can possibly be. As an athlete, I am feeling motivated to compete for my dream times this year as well as next year, in hopes of exceeding my expectations; reap the benefits of starting at 17 and being 10 year into the marathon career. This is the first four year cycle that I have a goal above qualifying for Olympic Trials in the marathon, which is a very big deal to me. Running each marathon with the purpose or intent of running my optimal time as a well seasoned marathon runner will make me feel very satisfied and hopefully enable my runner body to achieve a new standard for myself. So, I am very hopeful that I will race better this year than ever and feel like I have accomplished everything on my list well ahead of 2024. My level of focus during my next marathon is going to be the highest level of intense, hopefully I finish the entire race.

Hopefully god has a plan for all of us marathon runners. God is good all the time.

This is going to be that year I run all of my marathons extremely well, do my violin check list, and have my in person lectures for my grad math or physics classes. Everything is going to fall into place, and covid will be in the past.