The Lonely Marathon

Abstract

“It was months later that I began to recover and to relive the mixture of emotions I felt as I ran that marathon. There had been exuberance, of course, but through it had flowed a widening current of disturbing melancholy. I was unprepared for the sense of loneliness I felt more deeply the farther I ran.… At one of the great moments of my life, for which I had worked patiently and hard, I realized I was awfully alone. Something was missing.”