When I started this blog about my Steamtown marathon experience, in March 2004, blogging was very well-established already (I had Blogger to use and didn’t have to hand-code all the links!), but not so ubiquitous that every possible niche was overfull. I found the original Running Blog Family, or they found me, that summer, and wow, mine is one of the few on that list of 35 founders that still exists (not continuously because the Blogger –> WordPress multisite -> regular WordPress migration resulted in years of outages)—but I can’t imagine how many running blogs there must be now. Even “marathon blog” in quotes gets 43K+ results. Back in 2004 I didn’t expect many readers and my expectations were confirmed. Why on earth blog now? In order of likelihood:
- Primarily for me, as a journal. The platform gives me links and search and cloud storage and images and legibility, all missing from my (still-extant) handwritten journal, so that I can refer back to how my training went etc. As an Obliger (Gretchen Rubin’s classification which I personally find very helpful), the public-even-if-nobody-reads aspect is enough of an external obligation to get me to finish and somewhat-polish the writing, which is really tough for me otherwise. The Rochester marathon is a blur in comparison with Steamtown—partly because it wasn’t the first time around, but I think mainly because the exercise of writing and the ability to re-read cemented the memories in a way non-documented recall just doesn’t. It even feels more recent in time, in a weird way! And finally because the discipline of writing is inherently good for me. I’ve finished one book (unpublished, natch) and have two more projects in the works; the act of describing anything in words, whether it’s a real or imagined scene, uses the same muscles.
- A distant second (because everyone is so busy): for friends and family who might be interested.
- Even more unlikely: for web searchers who might find something useful (I’ll design my own training schedule, and post about using dates instead of energy drink, minimal shoes, etc.). My concentration grid game actually gets a few thousand visits a month so it’s not impossible, but it was up continuously since 2004, and the search stats for any of my blogs are quite pathetic.
- Finally and least likely: I will always remember how much Hollie’s 2003 marathon blog (long long gone) helped and inspired me, and maybe there’s one person out there who needs something like that and will find this. I loved her level of detail and her frankness, and it convinced me I could do it. Really, truly, if you can run at all you can complete a marathon—although I always follow that up by saying you shouldn’t force yourself if you don’t like running!