I forgot

Today I ran a 21.5 mile run. My fifth marathon is in two weeks. Yesterday I listened to NPR on my way to a 5K race. They were extolling the benefits of vigorous aerobic exercise. Today I hit the wall at about 17 miles and struggled through the “discomfort” to finish my planned run. It was not a pleasant experience - not one I would deliberately repeat. Yesterday I learned from NPR that running improves brain function, especially the ability to do rational thought. After finishing my run today, I went to lunch. While sitting in the cold dinning room, my fingers started becoming numb. It worried me at first until I “rationally” understood that my core temperature had likely dropped significantly after almost three and a half hours of running in 35 degree weather, and that my body’s priority was to supply blood to my core and digestive system thus starving my extremities.
As I was driving home it occurred to me that I needed to share “the rest of the story” regarding the NPR broadcast.

While vigorous exercise may improve rational thought it is obviously destructive to memory. There is no other possible explanation why anyone would be a marathoner. Someone might run one marathon just to prove to prove he/she can. But to run more than one is evidence of clinical psychosis or failure to remember the agony of long runs and marathon races. Since masochism cannot explain the large number of repeat marathoners, the only logical conclusion is that all repeat marathoners suffer from diminished memory capacity. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that there is a connection between the recent increases between the rising incidents of Alzheimer’s, dementia, and marathon participation.