"I definitely want to show how beautiful the marathon can be. I am the opponent of all those who find the marathon bad: the psychologists, the physiologists, the doubters. I make the marathon beautiful for myself and for others. That's why I'm here." - Uta Pippig, the first woman to win the Boston Marathon three consecutive times
I had exactly 5 hours to run 23 miles. My niece would be arriving at Union Station at exactly 11:30 am, which meant being on the trail precisely at 6:30 am. No time to eat, no time to drink much other then a double shot of espresso. Prep began the previous day when I scarfed down an entire box of Kraft Mac'n'Cheese and about 4 hard ciders. The benefit of the early start was a gorgeous sky and very cool temps. A high of 95 was in the forecast.
I started to run. On it went....on and on and on and on. 23 miles is a very long way. In fact it is almost as far as the distance between Fullerton CA and the heart of LA. Turns out that the exact distance between those two cities is......you guessed it.....26.2 miles on the dot (I looked it up).
By the 17th mile I was really loosing steam and I believe that is precisely when the Mac'n'Cheese and hard cider ceased to assist me. I pushed as hard as I could but was not able to hasten my pace by even a millisecond. That is the moment when this game gets serious. The emotions range from fear to frustration to anger to surrender. This happens with every single strike of my shoe on the ground, this entire range of emotions. This moment in the long run is when you decide if it is worth it.
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