Member-only story
The Short Race That Made Me Cry
The most meaningful celebration is the solitary silent one
I had been running for 28 minutes and 36 seconds.
28 minutes and 46 seconds.
28 minutes and 51 seconds.
52. 53. 54. 55. 56.
Then I collapsed, a few hundred feet from my house. I kneeled with one knee on the ground, at the corner of a country road and a subdivision.
I looked down at my watch: 28:56. I had done something that people told me I would never do. I had done something that seemed impossible 15 years earlier.
If I had a cigar, I would have lit it. And I don’t even smoke cigars. I thought of one of my favorite television shows as a kid.
I love it when a plan comes together.
That’s all I could think about. Overwhelmed with emotion, I had to fight back tears.
Those tears reminded me of a moment I read about and watched: the celebration of a man after an incredible victory.
The Silent, Solitary Celebration
Moments after the United States hockey team defeated the Russian hockey team on February 22, 1980, coach Herb Brooks soaked up the celebration of his players.
