running from the law

I joked a few years ago (on TOA!) that it should be illegal to run in Boston on Marathon Monday (unless you are Running, duh). Go support your fellow runners, right? You have all year to run, one day off won't hurt. I didn't run (or Run) this past Monday, but that's not strictly related to my aforementioned piece of proposed legislation. The reality is that in the ensuing years since my declaration, sometimes I've run on Marathon Monday, and sometimes I haven't run (and I've never Run).

There is a lesson buried in this story about consistency, but it's probably not what you're thinking. I don't think it matters much that I say we should do one thing, then I go off and do another. I don't worry about consistency in that sense because I fear it locks me into a course of action that may be wrong if the circumstances change. As far as I'm concerned, although it's important to follow the law it's more important to know when to break the law, so from that point of view I feel perfectly consistent. If that means others have questions about my recent Marathon Monday running record, then so be it.