Today I woke up at 6 am and drove to Harrisburg on the coldest day of the year wearing a pair of shorts, carefully selected thin layers of shirts, and my running shoes.
It was 26 degrees when I left the car.
I then ran the Harrisburg Marathon, finishing the 26.2 mile course in 3 hours 58 minutes and 37 seconds.
This was my fourth marathon and through the previous three it has been my stated goal to break four hours. I didn’t give myself much chance this morning of doing it since I was just getting over a cold.
I encounted what I encountered on previous marathons. While I still felt like I had fuel in the tank and a revving engine, my wheels came off. This time it didn’t happen until mile 23.
Then my legs just stopped working. I used the fact that I was sinking in the ground from the sudden inability to straighten my legs as an excuse to sit down. I gave myself one minute, and figured that while I was there I might as well attend to something else that was bothering. I removed my shoe and a bloody sock. Loose in my sock, bouncing around and irritating the wound on my pinkie toe was my pinkie toenal. I discarded this, put my sock and shoe on and continued running on willpower alone. My legs truly did not want to function.
But it was only 3 miles, then 2, then 1, and then I was done.
Broke four hours. Yaaay for me!
This may not seem like a big goal for you, but breaking 4 hours in a marathon has been a goal of mine four 3 years, and a goal that has consumed at least an hour of my day every day for this time period.
I find something transcendant in running a marathon. At some point in those four hours of exhausting painful effort, you find yourself staring into the abyss. The abyss stares into you, and the question is whether you are going to blink or persevere.
While I’m proud, I’m also a little melancholy about having reached my goal.
I’m sure I’m going to continue running. It’s good for me, and I’ll probably do more marathons. But it will be recreation, a personal goal. Just fun.
BTW: I am very sore right now.
