Did you see it today? Meb Keflezighi became the first winner of the Boston Marathon from the United States since 1983! What a day!

This morning, I got up and went over to the Boston Athletic Association’s Web Site and was able to view the coverage of the 2014 Boston Marathon. Well, I was able to watch as much of it as I could while getting ready to head out to work for the day. It is truly inspiring to watch both the elite runners as well as those who aren’t as elite tackle 26.2 miles. As a person who has now finished a full marathon, I watch these events with different eyes. I know very well just how difficult it is to just finish 26.2 miles.

Meb took to the lead pretty early in the race. If you’re unfamiliar with him, this is the graphic from the coverage I watched with his highlights. It’s amazing to me that a guy who is only 1-2 years younger than me can go so fast for so long. Right before I had to leave for work, I saw him take off and leave the next runner in his dust. As I drove to work, I couldn’t help but wonder if he’d be able to keep the lead all the way until the finish. Then, after parking, I took to twitter and learned he was getting so close to winning. I wish I could have caught the coverage. However, by the time I got to my desk and got the computer on, the race was over. So, I just watched the interviews after.

It was a proud moment for sure….for Meb, for the United States, and for runners everywhere.

I must admit to almost tearing up watching Meb during the playing of the Star Spangled Banner. You could see how much this moment meant to him.

Congrats to Meb for doing the USA proud! If you missed the coverage, here’s a video with brief (and I do mean brief) highlights.

The interview after the race says so much about this great champion.

As great as the elite runners are, the best stories come from the main field.

Even though the non-elite runners do not garner the media coverage that the elites do, I love watching them take on the same 26.2 miles that the elite runners cover. That’s part of the magic of a marathon. Both elite athletes and the everyday weekend warriors cover the exact same ground. We all have our challenges. While I may never even dream of finishing 26.2 miles in 2 hours, 8 minutes, and 36 seconds like Meb did, I can dream of finding ways of getting better, stronger, and faster. The allure of the marathon is how it pushes all of its challengers beyond what they thought possible. Whether that’s just finishing all 26.2 miles or if it’s finishing that distance faster than you have before, we all have our goals and they find their greatest test over this distance. You want to know the best part? We don’t have to be as fast as Meb to be a champion.

As for my workout week? Well, it was far from great. Although, this graphic doesn’t do my week justice. I actually ran twice this week. The second run, on Wednesday, somehow didn’t save to my Nike GPS watch. So, only one run shows up.

I decided to run 3 miles for my mid-week training runs. I did this twice. I ran on Tuesday, pictured above, and the same on Wednesday. Both runs were hampered by way too many red lights. But, that’s the way it goes sometimes. In a 3 mile training run, there isn’t much time to make up for waiting at a red light for 1 minute or longer.

On the bright side, in addition to the two runs, I started the 30 day Ab challenge. On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, I was able to finish the exercises required. On each day, I completed 20 Ab Crunches, 20 bicycle crunches, 20 leg raises, 20 scissor kicks, and held a plank for 20 seconds! The challenge does require 20 hip lifts which I did not do. As a first timer with these exercises, it was just too much to add the hip lifts for me. I’m doing this challenge to the best of my ability right now. When you watch the videos on how to do these exercises, you always see these thin people doing them and it looks so easy. When you’re an overweight guy like myself, it’s not that easy. So, I know that all I can do is my best and trust that it will get easier.

Unfortunately, I got sick on Thursday. Actually, I was surprised that I attempted the Ab Challenge on that day. Sometimes colds are manageable. On Thursday, it felt like I got hit by a truck. So, I called out sick from work and chose to rest. Then, as if sickness weren’t enough to deal with, family issues came up that took out my weekend. Some things are not for sharing on the internet and these issues were some of those. So, what started off as a great week for workouts, turned into average or below for the week. I would have liked to run 6 miles on the weekend with a gym workout and continued the Ab Challenge. However, it didn’t happen. All I can do now is be happy that I’m on a new week and get going again.

Time to learn from the past and move to the future! Hoping the inspiration I felt watching the Boston Marathon will continue throughout the week.

Did you watch the Boston Marathon today? How did your week go?