23 Miles

I did not know why I was running until I ran 23 miles. Somewhere around mile 20, everything clicked. Incidentally, this was also when some new and interesting hormones kicked in.



The sky got very blue very suddenly. My legs and feet stopped aching and a smile spread across my face as though it were it being pasted on. I was talking, laughing, enjoying the run as though it had just begun. There were no thoughts of pushing through the pain because the pain was gone (it would return in spades later).



I experienced a heightened sense of awareness; I felt what it means to push past the point of reason, past the threshold of my own will power, and into the ether. My body was still moving-- at that point out of habit and mechanics-- my mind had reached another level. I felt so close to the people still chugging along beside me, bonded together by the intimacy of accomplishment-- a moment so personal, yet shared.



That's when I fully realized: Anyone can do anything. I'm running all this way simply because I can. What word has ever held such power as can? I am not certain of the answer to that question, perhaps because I have never believed in cannot.