Why?

I think there are a lot of people who wonder why I am going to run another marathon.  And I don't plan to just finish.  I plan to finish fast.  As I sit here in a daze after running 11 miles fairly fast in unfavorable conditions, I wonder why I am doing this too!  I mean, I am totally wiped out.  Why am I putting myself through this exhaustion, pain, soreness, frustration?  And today was "only" 11 miles!  I figured that I should provide an answer, so here goes!
One reason is that I purely don't know.  I guess I love to run, I love to be competitive, and I love challenges.  That usually doesn't spell out "run a marathon fast" after you add up those pieces, for normal people anyhow.  But for me, I am competing against myself.  I set a goal and I'm going to do what I need to do to make it happen.  God only knows if it will come to fruition, but I'm going to at least give myself the chance and do it right.
When I was a year out of college, I had a lot of changes come pretty fast and I decided that New Year's Eve that my new theme would be "why not?".  If I wanted to do something and there wasn't a really good reason why I shouldn't do it, then I did it.  That theme led me in some really neat places, a lot of fun, and eventually to my husband.  This is another thing that I feel like there's no really good (or any at all) reason why I shouldn't take this goal on.  It would be a different story if I didn't have a supportive husband, but I do.  That's the key (thanks yet again Andy!).  Support, drive, some natural athletic ability, and a little craziness all equal a lofty goal!  Hey, why not????
The other reason that I'm attempting this goal is to show others what they can do by seeing someone else do something.  If there's one person who sees me attempt this marathon goal (whether I meet my goal or not), and decides that she wants to set a goal for herself and do what she needs to do to accomplish it, then I have met the secondary goal of the first goal. (Still following me?)
So if there's someone (anyone? Bueller? Bueller?) reading this who things there's something she wants to do but may think that it's silly, too hard, out of reach, selfish, think again my friends.  You have one life to live, so go live it!