Stacey Margaret Jones: Half Marathon Pace

Editor’s Note: With her blank verse poem, Half Marathon Pace, Stacey Margaret Jones offers us a nice change and inspiration for any runner. Enjoy – and find your pace.

Corrals of runners’ anxious pacing, plan-

ning how to span thirteen-point-one or more,

the twenty-six-point-two. The gun explodes,

announcers blast. We launch beyond the mats

that clock our pace. We run. We’re timed. Legit.

First miles, assess: our shoes laced right, not tight,

still tied? Coat on? Coat off? To stop for aid

and chomp the Chomps? The middle miles we flag

and beats become more meaningful. Cue up

Mumford and Sons to keep the pace and make

the go. I scout for inspirational

last scenes, ignore the miles and count the blocks.

I know just where I am. Half-mile cement

and rolling boulevard to finish grounds

that strike so hard inside this frame of bones.

The cheering throng, the blaring names, I pass

them all to launch myself beyond the done.