That marathon

I'm a little bit out from the marathon now.........but gee, running a marathon changes something.  It's not just that I committed to it and did it.  I've committed to a lot of very grand things in my life and done them (graduating from Officer Cadet School and completing my Masters.....these were no small things for me.....jeeezus surviving working at Treasury was bigger than most people might realize).  Running the marathon was an incredibly peaceful experience.  For sure there was a science, a way to go about it but I was inspired by the people along the way, other runners, spectators the whole thing.  Intellectually marathons are entirely stupid, they serve no real purpose (okay I did raise money for a charity) but really they are entirely ridiculous as a concept in the context of the world I live in.  Except maybe not.....for me.  I don't really know, nor how to explain it, except THAT marathon has inspired me to other things.  I didn't hate it, I loved it.  It was hard, it really was.....at the end, but not so hard that I didn't think "I'd do that again".  Some things I"ve done in my life I'd never repeat; some jobs, some relationships, some physical moments.......but that marathon, I'd do that again (and plan to, although not that exact marathon).  Why?  Just because I can, I described it to a friend "So my goal....in that last 2 miles some folk flew past me with ease....they'd run a clever race.... not only had something in the tank but a brightness that I wanna have in that last mile!"  So it's easy now I think about it -  always to be bright in that last mile.....simple dream really, question is, how many miles come before that last mile?