Mile 21
Mile 21 I had given up on trying to beat my previous marathon time. I regret saying this, but I settled. I settled for a finish. Looking back, it was probably the weakest mile; mentally the weakest mile. From mile 16 or 17, I don’t think my body could have gotten any weaker, but your mentality can always find somewhere lower to go. I was looking at my watch quite frequently in hopes that it might stop so that I could get a little bit more ahead of my time. Alas, it didn’t. For example, for the runners reading this blog, it is a sign of fear to your opponents when you spend the last few yards, seconds of a race looking back searching for their placement. Looking at my watch is parallel to that, in that it should my weakness.
Mile 22
This mile I knew I HAD to be getting close to finishing. The crowds were beginning to fill out the streets more and they kind of funneled in, creating a narrow pathway for the runners. After 22 miles, you have to imagine that the 12,000 people running the race have spread out somewhat; as I ran through this funnel alone, I felt everyone cheering for ME! This little tunnel made me forget about my weakness. I began to feel a- I wouldn’t call it a second wind, or even a twentieth wind- new energy. I got a little bit more confident in my performance and in the race. I fed off of the energy of the crowds (because let’s face it, I had nothing in me- literally) and managed to muster up some final energy that would get me through the next miles.
Mile 23
You are probably thinking this had to have been the longest marathon ever! I just keep going and going and going. And here I am at mile 23, and I still have 3 miles to go! Actually a full 5K to go! At first, I had these same thoughts, but soon I turned them from the longest race to wow! I am already almost done. I thought back on the last 3 hours, to the start of the race, where I had run from, and what I had seen. I kept thinking of the last three hours as if they were the last thirty minutes. The best way to describe it (hopefully it works) is like in an action movie/mystery. The main character spends the whole movie trying to solve something. At some point in the final minutes of the movie, he turns into slow motion and becomes transparent. In his head are flashing the last scenes from the movie, some fast motion and some slow motion. These scenes all have some sort of component that begins to put the pieces of the mystery into place. And then- the final thought- is moments before they go back to the present when the mystery is solved. That was mile 23 for me. Usually the main character finds out he is going to die, but I thought about the fact that I was so close to a huge accomplishment.