Journey To The Unknown
People may try to understand why a handful of runners would want to run day after day for almost two months around a half mile concrete surface during the summer months in New York City. Most of these runners have done it more than once, so there is even more reason to wonder why they would want to do it again after experiencing the tremendous challenges and difficulties involved in such a very long and arduous journey.
The runners may have heir own answers to such a perplexing question as to why they would attempt it once or even more. Having done it twice myself and helping in most of the other races as well, I can talk about the experience for hours. But the words may still not make any sense to those who have not experienced the race in some way or another, either as a runner, a helper or a regular spectator.
Instead of offering any kind of explanation that would probably fall short of satisfying the mind’s curiosity or cynical queries, I am offering this poem about the 3100 mile race which I wrote in 2002, a few years before I even attempted to run the race. I offer it here to those who feel that perhaps there is a reason beyond the logic and rationality of the mind that motivates and inspires these ‘fearless warriors’ to face a peaceful and sometimes painful battle within themselves to reach such a lofty goal.
Without further introduction here is the poem which I hope you can enjoy as a peak into the mystery of the incredible 3100 mile odyssey on foot.
Journey to the Unknown
A 3,100 mile orbit of concrete, automobiles and local humanity,
Lightly spiced with a hint of nature
And fed by the Grace of God,
Supported with the efforts of friends
Who sympathize with the pain,
The Joys
And the challenges
Facing at every moment
These handful of Hero-Warriors.
Running, walking, struggling
To the beat of their own
Undying aspirations
In this perpetually moving
Epic adventure,
These Ultimate Survivors
Of obstacles unimaginable
Are proving to humanity
With their unparalleled perseverance,
Adamantine wills
And unswerving Faith, That the impossible can be done,
And the Universal Energy
Can be unleashed,
To raise our standards
And lift our minds
Beyond the limits of our broken bodies
And faithless thoughts,
To reveal the Beauty and the Power
Of life’s long and arduous
Journey to the Unknown.
Arpan DeAngelo