Boston Beatdown

I know once again it has been quite a while since y'all have heard from me. My last post was back in late February while we had that nice bout of springlike weather. Well mother nature that cruel old bitch dished out an epic March punctuated by a massive snowstorm and frequents bouts of negative wind chills.

While we were having that epic March, my preparations for Boston moved into overdrive mode. March was always going to be the most critical month of my training. With limited racing, I was able to focus on pounding out those miles. I had weeks of 72.5, 72.3, and 85. My personal highlight was a seven day stretch where I ran 100 miles.

They were cold and miserable miles, punctuated by negative zero wind chills and a lot of times by a biting wind, that north wind carried straight from a polar bear's fart right into my face. Actually on some of those mornings, a polar bear fart would have at least warmed my face up...

When my Boston packet arrived in the mail, I finally was able to appreciate the significance of this entire journey. I will admit that many times, I get caught up in my obsession with trying to be the best. I get caught up in the chase to lower my times, to beat the competition, and to maximize performance. Yet with Boston, I must remind myself that just getting to the starting line let alone the first wave is an accomplishment worth appreciating.

As I write this, I am down to just three weeks left before I take my small step in history. Regardless of what happens in Boston, I will line up next to the elite marathoners of the world in the most prestigious marathon in the world. I grew up on a steady diet of despising New England sports, but it is on a New England stage where I hope to make my biggest mark yet. If you had told me three years ago, that on April 17, Ben Heller would be on the starting line of the Boston marathon, I would have spit out my beer from laughing so hard. Yet as the photo below shows, I MADE IT!

Now is the time to taper and repair any damage my training regimen has caused. I am focussed, determined, and salivating to conquer whatever Boston throws my way.


                                                                 SIDEBAR:

One of the great ironies in my journey, is that I am an admitted "liberal snowflake". My politics are pretty left wing, though i will entertain a right-wing perspective if it is grounded in logic and not a desire to continue for gentrification/ hatemongering.  If you ask the other side what being a snowflake means, it means "I am a weak-willed pussy who gives up and whines about everything. It means that I am a spineless jellyfish who suckles the bosom of society like a parasite and cries like a little baby whenever something goes wrong. A boo-hoo!!!

 There is an even more derogatory term floating around the internet "cuck" which carries a perverse sexual meaning. I wanted to address this section to those kind of people. Number one... fuck you, just because I care about things like the environment, basic human rights, and treating people with respect does not make me a weak-willed pussy. Next time you want to call someone a snowflake, a cuck, or a spineless piece of shit, I want you to think of me. I hold that snowflake worldview, but I will go out into the abyss and my willpower will destroy your perceptions. If you spent your time lifting others up instead of beating them down, maybe you would realize the kind of potential every human being has. I wasn't designed at birth to run marathons, to train in brutal weather, to embrace pain and discomfort, but I did it anyway without your help. I did it without government handouts, I did it without being a pest on society.