Twice is nice and twice is twice as nice

So yesterday was the Portland Marathon and for the second consecutive year the Goose ran it. Personally, I find that very, very impressive. Few and far between are the people who complete even a single marathon. To do it twice is even more impressive...or discouraging. Why someone would torture themselves that much a second time after suffering the damage the first time is beyond me...
And that is really the heart of this post. There are times we set goals and there are times those goals are difficult to attain due to obstacles...in this case the obstacles of foot and back pain. And she not only overcame those obstacles...she improved. Despite missing several training days and runs this time around, she actually knocked about 15 minutes off her time. Not much over the course of 8 hours you might think...but to show improvement despite struggling with the training is, to me, quite amazing. Just running 26.2 miles at all is, to me, amazing. Getting better? Nigh on to unbelievable.
And inspirational. When obstacles arise it would be easy to quit but then I think about her plugging along, getting the job done despite pain and suffering, out there alone basically just doing what it took to get the job done.
Very proud of you, Goose. Well done.