Tears

As I got home from worship today I was able to catch the last 25 minutes of the women's marathon from the Olympics. What an amazing thing to watch. I saw Paula Radcliff, the favorite coming in, drop out in tears at mile 22.5. I felt like I was there with her as just a week ago it was at mile 22.5 that I was brought to tears wanting nothing more than to drop out and disappear. It is really something to push yourself to the point where you have nothing left in your body, except for tears. To have pushed yourself so far physically that your emotions are spent as well.

Shortly after Paula Radcliff dropped out I watched as Deena Kastor finished an amazing race. As she was coming in the final 200 or more meters she was weeping just like Radcliff had been minutes earlier. This time, though, they were tears of joy. Once again, though, I have to imagine it was also a result of having pushed yourself so hard physically you are left with nothing but tears.

What a fine line it is between tears of anger/frustration and tears of joy. Marathon running pushes you right up to that line and you just never know which side you are going to fall on. I think that's why I love the marathon so, it pushes you to the limit both physically and emotionally. I suspect anyone who has ever run a marathon can totally understand... run on my friends!