I sit here late on a Friday evening and cannot believe I am typing this. The events of the day have been a bit crazy. When I woke up this morning I had no intention of what is going to take place on Sunday morning @ 7am. It’s a long story so I will spare you the details. Here’s the main point though…At 7am on Sunday morning, my sister, my wife and I are going to run in the Cleveland Marathon (all 26.2 miles of it)! I told you it was crazy.

Here is the main point I really want to stress, Sunday is my sisters day. I am so proud of her. She has worked so hard and trained for this moment. She completed the half marathon and now has her goals set on this full marathon. The original purpose of going to Cleveland on Sunday was to cheer her on as she accomplished this amazing goal. Words cannot express how proud I am and how much I admire her courage, her strength and her commitment to finishing the race. She is amazing.

So why then would my wife and I run it as well? Here are some of the key points to what led to this last minute decision.

1. I was originally going to surprise my sister somewhere around mile 20 and run beside her for a few miles to encourage and support her.

2. The Cleveland Marathon rules state that only runners are allowed on the course.

3. The half-marathon is sold out.

4. I have trained for 6 months for the half-marathon in Columbus (2 weeks ago). Unless you continue that training, sadly, it can “go” pretty quickly.

5. I am originally from Cleveland. It will always be my “home”.

6. I felt really, really good running the half marathon. If I had not, I would not be doing this.

7. I’m a touch crazy

8. Life is short.

If you add all of that up, what you have is a last minute entry into the full marathon on Sunday. I don’t know what it will look like. I don’t know (or care really) about my time and pace. What I do know is that we have to seize opportunities in life when they present themselves. Thankfully we have someone to watch the kids, a place to stay and are about as trained as we could be without planning this. I can’t think of a better setting to celebrate this goal than Cleveland. I can’t think of greater people to celebrate with than family. The road will be tough. The course will be long. The way unknown.

Life is too short to not grasp it, hold on for dear life and squeeze every ounce out of it!

Remind me of all of these facts on Monday morning!