Thought for a Saturday

I was going to sign up for the Cherry Blossom ten miler in Washington DC, but I was too late. In fact, the race filled up in three or four hours.  Think about that for a moment.  In a couple hours, 12,000 people signed up online for the event.  Holy cow!  I've been thinking that over for awhile and it helped me sort out another internal discussion I've been having.  I and others have mused out loud about whether or not to start a blog or a podcast, and for some of us, our collective voice has said in one way or another, why bother?  There are so many other very good blogs, podcasts and other vehicles out there that describe runners' activities, thoughts, plans, goals, and experiences.  My "A-hah!" moment came when I realized that isn't the point. What if somebody thought about signing up for a race and then said 'why bother? there are already lots of others doing it'.  Ridiculous, right?  So the real reason, the real point of blogging or podcasting, is to be involved and to contribute.  To experience, to share, to learn, and maybe even to teach.  Everybody has something to contribute, and everybody's participation is important.  That's what a community, in our case a community of runners, is all about.