Back when I was in law school, I ran a 5 mile race in North
Park. They happened to be running a
marathon the same day over the same course as I ran – only that I ran it once,
and the marathoners had to run it 5 times and then some.
Once our race ended, we stayed around and watched some of
the marathoners finish. I remember one
fellow in particular clearly in pain, straining his utmost on obviously totally spent legs. When he hit the
finish line, he gave out a cry of exultation followed by open weeping. He had seen his time and knew he had
qualified for the Boston Marathon by just a few seconds.
I read an article recently that asked the question: is there a group of people with more will
than a group of Boston Marathon qualifiers? The article suggests that these were the wrong
people to try and intimidate. I’m
guessing that they’ll all be back next year.
7 comments:
So enlighteningly true. Someone should do a study on marathoners as a group. My money says the least influenced by nightly news, most compassionate of the pains of others, and possibly the least concerned about the limits of science. Although it may turn out the opposite—the most obstinately compulsive about a very narrow belief.
One must run 26.3 miles by one's self, it is a singular act. One must rely one’s own training and mental strength but that being said very few people who run, run to win. They run to finish so everyone wins. Runners understand this about the others who are there on the course, so there is a bond, one will run with strangers for miles then separate to join another group often not saying a word but working off the pace of another, they off of you. Despite the individual nature of the sport there is a group mentality; a desire to encourage another runner even if it means that you end up one rung lower on the finish board. There is a quiet strength in group, a singularity of purpose. There is resolve. There is no doubt in my mind that the 2014 Boston Marathon will be the largest ever populated by the most determined of athletics.
No spectator at a marathon (or any running event, for that matter) ever boos.
Our track and CC teams always had the highest cumulative GPA in high school - I don't know what that says about runners, but there it is. (Also, I had the distinction of being on the teams with the highest GPA - track and CC - as well as the lowest - basketball, although I think the basketball team wore their distinction as an honor more so than the CC teams).
Ha, ha. Well said. My experience with track and cross country was the same. I wonder how hard it is to field a basketball team at elite colleges?
Somehow Princeton, Penn, Michigan, Notre Dame, Georgetown, Duke and North Carolina manage to do it.
And don't forget Harvard! It's been in the basketball news as much as any school the last couple of years.
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