The Olympics - Continued

This morning I ran six miles with Tanya and Vicki, and we talked a great deal about the Olympics, especially the track and field events.  Everyone had seen Shalane Flanagan and Kara Goucher finish the marathon, 10th and 11th place respectively, and this timeless photograph said it all:

Flanagan, on the right, fell to her hands and knees and could not stand up for several agonizing minutes.

No matter how short the race, we runners have probably been there, or almost there.  This is especially true at the end of a marathon, which because of its distance taxes the endurance of anybody.  Why 26.2 miles?  At the1908 Olympics in London, the marathon course was designed to start at Queen Victoria's statue at Windsor Castle and end in front of the Royal Box in Olympic Stadium.  This distance was later determined to be 26 miles 385 yard, and that became the regulation distance of the marathon in 1921.  It is a cruel distance, because the body's glycogen supplies are depleted somewhere around the 20th mile (the dreaded Wall!).  Marathon runners say that the race can be divided in half:  the first 20 and the last six miles.

Yes, I have been there.  Have you?  This is a picture of two women who had absolutely nothing left in the tank at the end of a supreme effort. Even though I run half their speed - literally - I have experienced a little bit of that same exhaustion, and so all of us who run these distances share in the glory of pushing themselves to this extreme of exhaustion.