"You don't look like a marathoner"

I don't know how many of you watched or followed the Boston Marathon yesterday, but both the men's and women's races were absolutely terrific contests, neither of which was decided until the last 2 blocks of a 26.2 mile race. Plus, the USA went 2 and 5 in the women's race, with 5th place finisher Kara Goucher just a few months off giving birth and probably would have won with higher fitness had she had a few more weeks training. In the Men's race, Ryan Hall paced the race for the first half, and finished just off the podium in 4th.

It was a gorgeous day here in Boston, and with the perfect weather came some fast running. Because the Boston Marathon course is a point to point race, and because it's slightly downhill in total elevation; races run on the course do not count towards the world record. If they did, both the Men's and Women's world records would have been set as well as the American record in both races. It was an amazing day of racing all around, and Rach had the day off to watch it while I snook time for updates during the workday.

Which is why I waited until today to post this particular story, because I didn't want to put anything even the least bit negative out yesterday.

My buddy Dan and I went on our annual gambling trip this past weekend, and we spent Saturday night and Sunday in the Boston area. Sunday Morning. we went over to the race expo to wander around a bit, and Dan wanted to see the finish line of the race. Dan asked me to take his picture at the finish line, and while we were in the process of doing so, a woman came up to us and said "Excuse me, are you doing the race? Because you don't look like a marathoner".

I was flabbergasted. What do you say when someone says to you "You clearly don't belong here", based totally on appearance. Frankly, my immediate impulse was to say "Are you a bitch? Because you don't look like one". I bit my tongue and responded that my friend was merely a tourist wanting a picture, and then I tried to stammer out something about being a triathlete and having done a Half-Ironman. I'm sure I sounded like an idiot, and I felt like less than nothing.

I'm sure the lady was the mother or grandmother of someone doing the race, probably a fit young person who has run since middle school, and this is probably the first race she's ever been around where non-traditional athletes participate. But that's another "qualifier", and I don't understand why I have to use one in the first place.

What does a marathoner look like?

Is it this?

Or this?

Or this?

Or this?

Personally, I think it's this

Maybe I shouldn't have let this bother me, because truly, I'm not a marathoner yet. I won't be racing my first until September. But insert "athlete" for "marathoner", and it's a much bigger discussion. If we judged every person by what they looked like, and not what they were capable of, something tells me this guy wouldn't have made quite the impression on the world that he did.