Filling the Unforgiving Minute With 60 Seconds of Distance Run

I just watched my friend Logan finish his first Ironman triathlon. He's been talking about it forever. He's lost over 100 pounds since he started distance running. It's changed his life for the better. etc. I just happened to click on the live stream a few minutes before he crossed and thought I might have missed him based on my math. Anyway, I watched a few finishers and they alternated between amazingly empowered and crushingly sad. Some of the finishers had a look in their eyes like they weren't all there. Some of them had a look in their knees like they weren't all there. I didn't know whether I wanted to watch as my friend crossed, but before I could see him, I heard the announcer call his name and say the words Logan had been waiting to hear for so long, "You are an Ironman!" Then I saw him in high spirits, finishing strong, pumping a fist. Clearly it was all worth it. That look he had said things I can't explain. Maybe I'll ask him about it sometime. I've never run more than two hours at a clip and Logan was out there for 14 hours and 24 minutes. He was swimming before I woke up, biking while I lazed over soup and sandwich with friends and  he realized his dream just before I sat down for a dinner of leftovers. My day could not have been more average, nor his more extraordinary. I'm profoundly proud and inspired. Here's to you, Logan, you did it. Yours is the Earth and everything that is in it!