Trail Ballad 12
As I eat breakfast
I wonder why I’m running
In this race today.
We set off! I ask
If I can really do this?
Do I have the strength?
Feet fly over earth
Grass and gravel, up and down
In the second hour.
With smiles and chatter
I befriend other runners
On this lap or that.
In this, the fourth hour,
I commence the approach
To previous limits
Hour five and I reach
Mile twenty seven; I am
An Ultra Runner.
Time for sandwiches!!
I arrive at mile 30
And walk a whole lap.
As body digests
Energy is drained away
Hour seven is dark.
Less than five remain.
The smell of grass fills my nose.
I exist in space.
Now a warm, wet pain
I have never felt before
Appears in my toe.
In hour ten I watch
Dramatic dark clouds roll by.
Mind dissolves skywards.
Two hours to go.
I have passed forty five miles.
Watch battery dead.
Found my new boundary
Today between land and sky
On Summer Solstice.
An ice bath and food;
A recovers duo.
I hear I came third.
As I lie in bed
I give thanks for all I have;
Mind, body and friends.