Hold on

Closure

On that bench are his words: “It is necessary to dig deep within oneself to discover the hidden grain of steel called will.”

It took a few minutes for Nathan and some family members and friends to find the place on the road where Ryan had taken his final steps — they hope to raise money for a permanent marker — but they were in place when Stephan zoomed past it.

Keflezighi had sped by minutes before, and Nathan shouted out, “Do it for Ryan!” But he said no such thing to Stephan. He just cheered: “C’mon, Stephan! Go!”

Stephan’s face began to crinkle, and he wiped his eyes. He brought his hands to his lips and blew a big kiss forward. No longer could he hold back the avalanche of emotions that had threatened to overcome him since the start, when Keflezighi had told him that Ryan would have loved Sunday’s windy conditions.

In his quiet voice, Stephan told Keflezighi, “I know.”

After Stephan passed Ryan’s spot in the park, he said, he cried for the next quarter-mile.

He recalled calming down long enough to catch two other runners and finish in 2:19.47, which placed him 16th overall. It wasn’t an Olympic trials qualifying time, but he was thrilled. He was the fourth American across the finish line.

Just past that line, he crumpled to the ground and buried his head in his hands. Finally, he had done it. Really, he said, he used some of Ryan’s strength and toughness to get through it, so in his eyes he and Ryan had done it.

Afterward, I asked him how the race had gone, and whether he felt he had honored Ryan as he had hoped he would.

He started to speak but dropped his head and wept for several minutes.

Then he looked up, his eyes red and his cheeks wet, and said: “It was unbelievable. Closure.”

Read the full article on NY Times.

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