The Last Miles

"Training is principally an act of faith. The athlete must believe in its efficacy: he must believe that through training he will become fitter and stronger."

-FRANZ STAMPFL


My third day out this morning was a shorter run, about 6-7 miles, feeling tired and sluggish after 2 longer days, and a short night's sleep. I watched the debate, and enough of the talking heads after to feel I had some sense of the where things stand in the home stretch... then I had trouble falling asleep. Visions of voter fraud, and worse, outright sabotage courtesy of the right wing control freaks leaked into my staunch optimism. I kept wondering, if they could do it before, what will prevent them from doing it again, stealing another election? But then I come back to that 'wave of history', the tide of the times, etc. And somehow, in the core of this vision is a palpable hope that transcends business as usual, even bad business. It comes from the sense of pendulum swings coming back from disaster to balance before plummeting away to another extreme.

Maybe I dream. But the last miles are always the toughest. I watched Obama last night wondering what really goes on in his head. McCain is nauseatingly transparent. His cynicism and disrespect for his opponent was all over his body language. Obama kept cool and composed, on point and on message. Yet for all that, and after years of preparing, building this campaign, we come down to the stretch where literally anything can happen. Is he confident? He seems to be. Is he ready? Who could be, for what we have to cope with in the slide of national and world affairs? But the affirmation of history seems to be carrying him. When the line seems far, and energy is long spent, something wells from deep inside that brings a certainty, a surge of confidence. No matter what, you think, I am bringing this home. I will see myself cross the line...I hope he knows how much support there really is, even as he goes alone into the final stretch. He carries it now, but we are there for him, preparing to leap to his aide, the minute he is with us.