Virtuti, Honori, Gloriaeque

My new mantra for the down spells in runs. If you see a guy running around New York City muttering "Strength, Honor and Glory" under his breath in time with footstrikes (hopefully, and not just raggedly), that'd be me.

Today, in the second half of my long run, I'd sometimes add forti (strength, power) for virtuti, honori, gloriaeque, virtuti, honori, gloriaeque, et forti, et forti.

Why two words for strength? Well, the first virtus comes to us as virtue and stands for all the qualities of manly strength and virtue. Fortis on the other hand, is the more general physical strength. I puzzled over this choice for a while and I thought that virtus more closely captured the motivation necessary for a marathon mantra. In the same vein, when Maximus said to his troops "Strength and Honor," I don't think he said "Forti et Honori," but "Virtuti et Honori." (There was also a choice between honor and honestas, both of which mean "honor," but I decided on the English cognate.)

If you anyone's wondering why all this switching, e.g., from virtus to virtuti, the latter form indicates purpose and translates more fully into English as "for strength." Since these things aren't abstracts, but why I need to push through the my sore spots, struggle for virtue, for honor, and for glory and strength, that seemed the appropriate rendition of the mantra.

Virtuti, honori, gloriaeque, virtuti, honori, gloriaeque, et forti, et forti.

If this is what I come up with on a two hour long run, imagine what's coming when I hit three.

Wednesday: 5 miles in 39:00 (7:48/mile)
Thursday: 10.25 miles in 1:20:43 (7:52/mile)
Saturday: 16.0 miles in 2:00:15 (7:31/mile)