running and writing: dogs, fights and long distance

Today is the 113th Boston Marathon.

(photo is the earliest known photo of the Boston Marathon, 1904)

Running a marathon is a lot about not giving up, putting one foot in front of the other, listening to what you're telling yourself, keeping going, keeping going long after you think your body is out of gas ("the wall"), keeping going even when your quads are screaming at you to walk, and your brain is bargaining with you (those people over there are walking why can't you?, no one is making you do t