I ran across this in one of my books this weekend and wanted to share it :
"The prelude to a marathon is one of life's strangest yet most vivid times. It is a time of intensity yet relaxation, apprehension yet resolve; a time of deeply introspective solitude in the midst of the biggest jostling throng most of us will ever join. So many people, intent on a seperate inward commitment, but united in one common physical endeaver. Our motive is private, the context public. We are strangers who are instant comrades, competitors bonded by the shared knowledge that we are all about to understake one of the hardest tasks in our lives. Ahead lie strenuous effort, weariness, and pain, but we will endure it all voluntarily, for the sheer enjoyment of trying.
The communal atmosphere before the start is tense, like an army awaiting the order to enter battle, because the marathon is a contest- and each runner will be tested. Yet the mood is also ebullient and exhilarating, like a troupe of actors before a performance, because the marathon is also a drama- and each runner's story will be part of the action.
The visible scene would surely baffle any unsuspecting Martian astronomer who happened to focus on it. Over a sprawling space of open ground wanders a huge swirling crowd of humans, of both genders and all races, ages, and sizes, nervous yet peaceful, who seem confined there yet are free to go; they are diverse and idsorganized yet all wearing numbers, some grouped in teams but most alone; many with bare legs, covered in old shirts or plastic garbage bags to keep out the weather, yet who also wear expensive shoes and complex watches, milling about without direction; engaged in sperate idiosyncratic rituals of shuffling and stretching, all lining up to enter-one by one- a row of wobbly little boxes; and somehow all coordinated and ready when the moment arrives to move together up to the start.
It seems a very strange business, but somehow it works. Once experienced, it is never forgotten." - a page from 26.2 Marathon Stories by Kathrine Switzer and Roger Robinson
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