I’ve never run a marathon but I’ve read many accounts by runners who have. Nearly all of them talk about the mental challenge of it: staying focused and calm, especially in miles 23 and 24 when the end seems so far away and the pain in your body is overwhelming.
They don’t talk about the view or the music on their iPod or anything else except their grim determination to endure.
I can relate. My marathon isn’t about running but it is about running around. I’m in the middle of an unusually busy season. Lots of travel and work projects have kept me hopping and I have to admit that I’m wondering if I’ll ever be able to stop running.
Like that marathoner three miles from the finish, I’ve had my head down and kept my eyes on the ground in front of me for far too long.
Last week I woke up early on an icy cold morning on the shores of a different Great Lake and decided to finally look up.
Sunrise in Duluth, MN
Split Rock Lighthouse, MN
The shores of Lake Superior
I had these spaces mostly to myself, so there was no one around to see me leap from rock to rock or hear me laugh out loud into the wind when I stopped enduring and started living again.
All photos taken by me, with an iPhone.