Introduction

I had been running — alone in the dark — for what seemed like forever. As I passed trees lining both sides of the road, each stride sent the rhythmic crunch of gravel echoing through the forest. Sweating profusely, chest heaving, and feeling more isolated and alone than ever before, I glanced nervously back over my left shoulder.

Frantically, I thought to myself, “Am I still being chased?” My pace quickened.

Peering again back into the darkness, I couldn’t tell if I was still being pursued. Now and then, eerie yellow headlights of a passing car provided a momentary sigh of relief, temporarily illuminating the path ahead. The respite was brief: gone in an instant as each automobile’s glaring red tail lights slowly diminished before vanishing altogether into the distance.

Again, I found myself running alone in the darkness, struggling to make out the path ahead. The only thing I was sure of was that I still had many miles to go until I got there, and I knew I couldn’t stop — wouldn’t stop. Too much was riding on this. Others had fallen behind and got caught. Some had even sacrificed themselves and their long-held dreams of making it so that I could keep running. Knowing that they had given it all up for me was a constant, heavy weight, a thought that perpetually occupied a dimly lit corner in the back of my mind.

Everything depended on me getting to that twenty-third mile. Exhausted, placing one aching foot in front of the next, I kept running alone in the dark — hoping I wouldn’t get caught like so many others before me.

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