This is a poem I wrote a few years ago. It captures my feelings at the end of the training season.

Big run, big room.
Twenty-six point two miles.
Sixty-foot ceilings, thousands of square yards.
Both dwarf the individual.

We start here and end here:
The George R. Brown Convention Center.
Ten thousand people crammed in at 7:00 a.m.
Outward excitement, fear in their eyes.

When I get back, it is nearly empty.
Some have finished and gone home.
Some dropped out and are grieving.
Some still on the course determining their fate.

I wander into that cavern feeling very small,
Exhausted by the race.
Vowing never again,
I encounter the runners I had coached.

We chat briefly.
I head toward the world,
Consciously ending the season with those steps.
They are the hardest of the day.

-ADA