Welcome to the official blog of U.S. marathon runner Josh Cox. Every other Wednesday visit http://joshcox.thefinalsprint.com for Cox’s latest blog entry and for more information, also please visit: www.joshcox.com
Faith – noun: strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual understanding rather than proof.
“Those who wish to succeed must ask the right preliminary questions.”
- Aristotle,
Metaphysics, II, (III), I.Pascal’s Wager
“Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists.”
- Blaise Pascal, French Mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher
The 1997 Mountain Masochist 50 Miler started just before dawn. The leaders and I passed 3 miles in under 18 minutes. Six minute pace, easy, I could do this all day, only 47 more to go.
During “ultras” – that’s runner nerd for “ultra marathon” – there are aid stations about every four miles. If athletes are hungry – they eat, if they’re thirsty –they drink, if they need a rinse – their crew douses them with water. A crew is essential; all the top runners have one. Crews, typically, are buddies who enjoy running but aren’t dumb enough to actually race beyond 26.2 miles. My crewman was Chad Davis, a walk-on from Sacramento, a cool guy – particularly since he rented out our attic.
Through 20 miles everything was going according to plan.
Only 25 more miles before I unleashed my secret strategy, I thought. They won’t know what hit them. (See last blog for secret strategy.)
Read the rest of this entry »
Welcome to the official blog of U.S. marathon runner Josh Cox. Every other Wednesday visit http://joshcox.thefinalsprint.com for Cox’s latest blog entry and for more information, also please visit: www.joshcox.com
“I believe in miracles.
I believe in a better world for me and you.
Oh, I believe in miracles.
I believe in a better world for me and you.”
-The Ramones,
I Believe in Miracles“Son, this world is rough
And if a man’s gonna make it, he’s gotta be tough
And I know I wouldn’t be there to help you along.
So I give ya that name and I said good-bye
I knew you’d have to get tough or die
And it’s that name that helped to make you strong.”
- A Boy Named Sue
(A song written by Shel Silverstein made famous by Johnny Cash. A song about a dad who names his son Sue and leaves - the son vows to exact his revenge for his awful name. He finds his dad, fights him, his dad gets up, smiles, and explains why he named him Sue. )“The secret of man’s being is not only to live but to have something to live for.”
-Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Russian literary giant & Casino fiend
Somewhere around 41 miles, in the high hills of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains the race came undone. I could no longer run; a humbling experience for a self-assured 22-year-old college senior who, several hours earlier, had thought running a 50-mile race was a good idea. For the first time in my life I wished I were jogging – oh the horror – anything but the “J-word.” But alas, I was doing the S-word. Shuffling. Shuffling is what we runner’s do, we bypass the jog and enter straight into the shuffle. It’s part of the unwritten code – run slow, shuffle, but never, ever jog.
Read the rest of this entry »
The officially sold-out Garry Bjorklund Half-Marathon, which is held in conjunction with Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minn., will offer additional entries through an online auction to benefit the family of the fallen marathoner, Wesly Ngetich, who was killed during the violence in Kenya earlier this year. Ngetich won Grandma’s Marathon twice in 2005 and 2007.
“Wesly was a great champion for our event, so assisting his family is the very least we can do,” said Scott Keenan, executive director of Grandma’s Marathon. “Our donations can’t bring him back, but hopefully they can bring some financial relief to his family members as they struggle through this difficult time.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Two-time Olympian Dathan Ritzenhein has been named Visa Humanitarian Athlete of the Year by USA Track & Field. Ritzenhein will be honored December 1 at the 2007 Jesse Owens Awards and Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony held in conjunction with USA Track & Field’s 2007 Annual Meeting, November 28-December 2, in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Ritzenhein, 24, of Eugene, Oregon, earlier this year won the Healthy Kidney 10K in New York on May 19 in 20 minutes 8 seconds, breaking the Central Park course record of 28:10 set by Kenyan Paul Koech in 1997. Following the race Ritzenhein donated his winner’s earnings of $7,500 to the race beneficiary, the National Kidney Foundation. “I made a pact with myself before the race that if I’m fortunate enough to pick up this course record the least I can do is give back the first place prize money seeing as how this is professional athletics, but it’s a race for charity,” said Ritzenhein.
Read the rest of this entry »
Dear family and close friends,
I hope this letter finds all of you well. I know some of you must be wondering where the pictures are that I so often attach to my emails. Unfortunately, this is a much different type of letter. I write this letter to all of you for a few reasons.
The first is simply because I love you all. Some things will be happening in the next week that I want you all to know about from me FIRST. You deserve this because you have been there for me from the very beginning. You have supported me throughout the many struggles that I have had in my life and continue to do so to this day. You deserve to hear about Marion from Marion and not from the USA Today or CNN.
The second reason is because I finally want to shed much baggage that has been tearing me down for a long time. I want to share with you all my humanness. The fact that I have made mistakes in my life, made bad decisions, and have carried a great amount of pain and hurt throughout my life.
Read the rest of this entry »
© 2006-2008 The Final Sprint, LLC | Privacy Policy | Design by The Blog Studio
The Final Sprint, LLC is owned and operated by Adam Jacobs
The Final Sprint