The Gospel Mile

 The gospel mile

John Clare Stokes

If anyone has ever run the mile on a track, for time, one cannot appreciate the agony and euphoria. The gospel mile is my analogy. Lap one is Matthew, all your genealogy of workouts, of the sprinting power poles, hills, long distance, pacing go into play. Lap two is Mark, you usually run your fastest, most confident lap before the wall is met. Lap three is Luke. By now you’re in need of a physician as you starve for oxygen. You do not think you can continue at the needed pace. You need grace. Lap four is John. The mystical experience. The way revealed. You get that second wind as spent you find the energy to run beyond yourself. The barriers are broken and you run not upon your air, but the air that comes from above. 

Laying in the infield, looking up at the stars of day, waves of adrenaline coursing through the legs still twitching, you are at one. You are a miler.