Agent Smith: Why, Mr. Anderson? Why do you do it? Why get up? Why keep fighting? Do you believe you're fighting for something? For more than your survival? Can you tell me what it is? Do you even know?... You must be able to see it, Mr. Anderson. You must know it by now. You can't win. It's pointless to keep fighting. Why, Mr. Anderson? Why? Why do you persist?
Neo: Because I choose to.
There have been so many nights in the past few years, when things didn’t make a lot of sense to me, or I couldn’t get over something lost, or get past a mistake I’d made, that I had the overwhelming desire to go out to Congress Avenue, find the start line in the dark, and run the entire marathon course. I have found that the farther out of running shape I get, the less of a good idea it sounds like.
For two hours, or 2:50, or 4:10, or five hours, you have one goal, and that’s to run 13.1 miles, or to run 26.2 miles. A mission statement could not be simpler – go the distance, or at least as far as you can possibly go.
I could care less how fast or slow you run today. Times, Boston qualifiers, personal records, even winning, are horribly inadequate measures of who we are, and of our hearts. Great people are not really made by their accomplishments.
There will be things outside your control: the weather; the roads; the people around you; how your body feels; how hard you did or didn’t train in the past. Those conditions may set the stage, but great people are not made by the conditions they find themselves in.
You can control the choices you make, and that’s the beauty of this sport. Right now, we can’t do anything about the physical or mental state in which you’re lining up to race. But once the gun goes off, all that will matter are how you face the choices ahead of you today.
Great people are constantly and consistently defining themselves by their choices. You started with the choice to take up the challenge of running a marathon or half marathon. You made the choice to train, and over six months, you made countless choices to get up, to show up, to run. You make a choice today by stepping to that starting line, and putting yourself in a situation where you will be faced with even more tough, painful choices.
That you are here today says so much about you – the choices you’ve made to get here define the story of your character… so far. I want to tell you all that what you’ve done is enough. But if that were the case, then you could all turn around and go back to bed, and I know none of you would choose that. You are not people that decide that you are just good enough.
The other night, Lorrie and I discussed whether our choices define us. I think that they do, but it’s a non-stop process – there’s never a finished resume, never a final test score, until we die. We have to be responsible for our failures, and we get to take credit for our successes, but who we are is never set in stone, because there’s always another choice to be made, just ahead.
You have to be mature and intelligent today. If you’re feeling ill, dehydrated, or really injured, then slowing down or stopping is every bit the smart and equally tough choice.
But hopefully, that won’t be the case. And if not, then every time you want to slow down, but don’t really have to, you’ll really get to choose the kind of person you are. Every time you want to walk, but don’t, you’ll win. Every time you want to quit, but don’t, you get to be a hero. That’s where you might draw on the “why” that I talked about. That’s what our shirts are about, the “why”.
So, today, choose how you run. Take what the course gives you, and be smart with how you use it. Take what your body can give you, and take a little more.
Today, choose to be who you want to be. No matter what you do for a living, how much money you have, what degree hangs on your wall, no matter what mistakes you’ve made, how you’ve succeeded, or what you’ve lost, today, for that chunk of time you’re out on the road, you can be the kind of person you want to be. You all have the training, and the will - I’ve seen it in every one of you, and I am extremely proud of you all. Now is your time. Don’t let it go.
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