Pack Creek Ranch, San Juan County, Utah
Spring storm brought heavy rain, strong wind, snow to the mountains and freezing temperature to the valley.
PERSONAL BEST
The Battle of Marathon took place in 490 BC when the Persian King Darius tried to subjugate Athens and was defeated. Thus began the myths around that event. Pheidippides is the legendary Athenian soldier who ran from the battleground to Athens with the news, a distance of about 25 miles.
Historians agree on the details of much of this as legend. I refer to you Wikipedia’s overview of the Battle of Marathon and the consequential story of the marathon as a social and cultural phenomenon.
What is clear is the modern meaning of “marathon” – when I hear local participants talk about marathons and half-marathons, they don’t talk about winning – they shape their race in terms of Personal Best. Meaning that they have their own goals for attainment and improvement.
Many years ago, I ran a Marathon. My time was not spectacular. 26 days, actually. One mile a day. Personal Best. Not how fast, but how I felt about the project.
Competition seems welded into being human. We want to be winners, not losers. But what is winning and what is losing is often confusing.
A story: There was a time when I often played amateur social poker. One of the regular members of the game was not only really good at poker, but he also played with a fierce desire to win – and always did.
Then came a time when he was no longer invited to play with us. He had lost the respect that friendship requires. He never seemed to realize that he could have modified his goal from beating us at poker to finding a way to keep the games going for the sake of the better goal of the pleasure of good company with friends. He could have played for fun – not always winning.
His sense of Personal Best turned him into a social loser.
The desire to be number one is not always misplaced.
There are those who deserve it.
But the goals of personal best may often recognize that what is best for all the persons involved adds moral dignity to the larger human team – the commonwealth.