Guest Blogger: My sister, Merlin

I am humbled by the kind words of my sister:

Lisa has graciously granted my request to be a guest blogger. I wanted to get my few cents in because I am so exhilarated by what she is doing...and also because her blog needs a counter to Lisa's trademark undersell. Don't be fooled, readers! We know Lisa is a *STAR*. I hope you will allow me to toot the horn for my too-humble-to-do-it-herself sister.

Having run a marathon myself, I can assert that this is a tremendous undertaking...and I was 13 years younger when I did it than Lisa is now. For every bit that one isn't athletically inclined, one must pull from other internal and external resources to get through the training. Lisa won't mind my noting that she is not the spawn of Bruce Jenner + Flojo.

So how did she do it? Lisa is able to fasten herself unshakably to her commitments, even unnervingly so. (This is a great advantage, by the way, when you're her sister and she's committed to being a great sister to you!) She protects her own goals with a fierceness the outside observer might miss because she doesn't make a loud fuss about it. Such it has been with her fitness endeavor. When Lisa told me she was running a marathon in Paris, I knew it was a done deal. I knew there wouldn't be any, "Well, I tried and it was just too hard" or "That first 5-miler showed me how stupid this idea really is." Lisa wasn't going to let the coldest winter in 10 years, a paucity of running experience, demands of a new job, a real estate empire behaving like an unruly teenager, a Hopalong Cassidy ankle, or slim knowledge of carbs vs. proteins get in her way. No excuses, no complaints, no reconsidering. Perhaps Lisa didn't write about her inner tenacity because she takes this supernatural ability for granted. But if I could banish discouraging thoughts from my mental sphere the way Lisa can, I'd be buying a whole lot more lottery tickets.

Other resources...Lisa has such a sincere and endearing way about her that she is excellent at recruiting others to get on board with even "impossible" ambitions. (Really now, who could not be won over by her smiling gamely in her homemade FIT BY 40! t-shirt?) So she of course found a great organization to train with, and then wowed them with her ability to drum up pledges. Thank you from me to Lisa's Team-in-Training coach, teammates, and everyone who ran with her during her training. Thank you to all who showed support for Lisa with words of encouragement, running advice or gear, and donations to LLS. When I look at the long list of donors on Lisa's blog sidebar, I feel how loved she is by so many people, and it makes me happy.

Whatever Lisa has written about being slow, 26 miles is not a lazy man's walk to the corner store. That's the beauty of the marathon distance...you can't achieve it on a whim, or somehow fake your way through. To make it so very far requires the runner to be authentic, to show the thing in herself that is real. That’s why people don’t look pretty at the end of the race. Along the way, they surrender the pretty self for that which is beyond the self. And that is what Greatness looks like. I know it’s worth going all the way to Paris to see.

I love you, Lisa.