Finding Momentum

What a feel­ing: cross­ing the fin­ish line at 26.2 under the Bay Bridge in incred­i­ble agony, a mas­sive sense of relief and food, glo­ri­ous food wait­ing for you on the other side.

What a feel­ing: run­ning in a huge sea of peo­ple, mak­ing con­ver­sa­tion with strangers, won­der­ing what their sto­ries are.

What a feel­ing: cross­ing the Golden Gate bridge at 7 in the morn­ing, the wind blow­ing you about and the North Bay illu­mi­nated by shafts of light run­ning through the clouds. The euca­lyp­tus trees frame the coast per­fectly and insu­late you from the sea­side gusts.

What a feel­ing: high-fiving strangers, gulp­ing down energy drinks and carb gel at ran­dom inter­vals. A ran­dom Tro­jan war­rior shows up here and there run­ning in full armor.

What a feel­ing: run­ning through cramps over the last 8 miles, your face con­torted in every pos­si­ble way (and ruin­ing all of your pho­tographs), your mind turned to mush and all higher-level mind fac­ul­ties shut down, leav­ing you to just run and breathe and ignore the pain.

What a feel­ing: cramp­ing up and face­plant­ing a mile from the fin­ish and hav­ing three guys come to your help. One of them offers you salt tablets, his energy drink and runs with you a short dis­tance mak­ing sure you’re all right.

What a feel­ing: feed­ing off the energy of thou­sands, peo­ple run­ning with var­i­ous dis­abil­i­ties, run­ning for causes. You bump into a few other run­ners with IJM t-shirts and you swap stories.

What a feel­ing: tears form­ing in your eyes; you won­der if it’s because of the pain or if you’re just really that emotional.

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To be continued–more thoughts and pho­tos to come!