I'm a Marathon Man! (Or at least half of one)

It's amazing. Hard to explain, but there were some ways I attempted to put it into words.

This is my ' I'm On Top of the World by Imagine Dragons ' face

 I ran a half-marathon. And I'm still ecstatic and surprised. I never thought of doing such a thing, but I can't explain how happy I was when I finished. As I walked away from the finish line, the only thing I could think was "I love the world. I love the world. I love the world."

A marathon (or half of one) - was always in my mind - something beyond my hardest efforts. Something for really impressive people, it was a cult of devotion to discipline in a method I never understood until recently.
For the first half of the semester, I had been training for this half-marathon. Until training, I had never ran more than two miles, or three miles. But I did - until I got sick. From allergies, a sinus infection and in-flight cabin pressure, I was sick for a day after our week long trip to Vienna. And then I stopped training, I hadn't ran for 6 weeks.

But when it came to that day, I reluctantly went, and I don't regret a thing.

Last seen photo of these horrible running shoes

I'd never ran further than 3 miles in my life, but this day, I ran over 13. After I laced my shoes, I'm walking towards the starting line. Popular American music is playing from massive Line Arrays set up around the Bonn city streets. I recognize Of Monsters and Men, and the German announcer counting from 10 down to 1. As Levels from Avicii plays, leg after leg of marathon runners, they take off.

I focused on my music, and distracted myself by running against a cruise liner. The kind onlookers in the crowd kept me going. Little kids gave me high fives, and an old lady used a cheese grater, wooden spoon and a bridge railing to rustle up as much noise as she could.
And then after 2 hours, it was over.

(Sorry it's rotated)

I Wanna Win

 Until the finish line, I was pacing myself against a girl from a similar study abroad program, but from the LMU University in California. So naturally, I couldn't let her beat me. "I wanna win, I wanna win." was all I thought, as I finished strong and sprinted the end to the finish line. With a final time of 2:12.53 and all the pride in the world I had finished something more than I planned.

Once I remembered how to walk again, I found my friends after everyone finished running.

And there were waffles too! With Carlos, Rachel, Josh and Andrew

More than just one person and 13 or 26 miles, a marathon is a huge event. Families and friends come out to watch their runners. But even random folk have parties, pass out free beer to the runners (which missing out on is my only regret) and use noisemakers to encourage people they've never met or seen. I still don't speak nearly enough German - but not a single onlooker or runner noticed. But despite my American heritage, myself and the other students I ran with were equally motivated by a shared desire to overcome belief barriers.

That being said, I'm still in shock over the Boston Marathon tragedy. After my wonderful experience, I'm aghast as to what to say. A marathon is a simple and difficult thing. Psychological motivation and physical training. And despite the fact that I only ran half of one, I still felt as though I experienced a full one. 

But one thing is for certain- back home, there will be a lot of 5k's and 10k's in the future!