You're doing what?

The story I have to share is about how I ran one marathon every weekend for an entire calendar year, a quest I dubbed "Fiddy2" (a common mispronunciation of the word "fifty-two".) The focus of my running was to benefit the Mobile, Alabama chapter of L'Arche; an international organization that works with mentally and physically challenged individuals. Helping L'Arche Mobile was an integral part of the answer to the question I am most often asked when others learn about what I did in 2006: Why? That question, while so short, always provokes the longest answers.

The shortest and most truthful answer I can give is: Why not? The driving force behind many of the things I have done in my life is a desire to push myself to do something I have never attempted before, and a desire to push myself to do something no one has ever attempted before. But the real genesis of the idea to do something many would call crazy is more complex than why not?

I have always aspired to maintain a high level of physical fitness. And, having traveled very little in my life before college, I wanted to see the United States, as well as the world. New places, new faces and new experiences always make my pulse race. In addition, I found, in the days before Fiddy2, that when it comes to long distance running, my body could handle far more than the average person's. It will become clear how the confluence of these desires and abilities pushed me towards my plan for 2006, with surprises at every turn.