All the hype surrounding the attempt to break the 2 hour marathon barrier gave me lots to think about. The elite runners may have their 2 hour marathons but for us mere mortals, the middle of the packers, 4 hours is the unofficial time we try to beat. It reminds me of something we nurses used to tell ourselves when asked to pick up extra time during the busy season: "
you can do anything for 4 hours." We used to call the 4 hour shifts "
the princess shift".
Whenever I run a race, I pull out all the mantras, but for a marathon, I pull out the old one from my staff nursing days:
"you can do anything for 4 hours." I don't know that I'd call a marathon a "princess shift", though. But this begs the question: what can you do for 4 hours? Besides run a marathon, that is?
