I have been going on and on about the usefulness and setbacks of technology in education and everyday life, but never really touched upon how technology helped me set an incredibly enormous life goal of mine: finish a marathon.

When I was in Italy, at the United World College, one of the requirements for the IB diploma was to complete the CAS (Creativity, Action, Service) part. As fun as it sounds, the vast number of things we could do to complete it almost made it difficult to choose what to do. Once I settled creativity and service, the best (according to me) part was left – and so many sports to choose from. I did volleyball, basketball, field hockey, orienteering but the best part came in the cold Alpine winter. We could do skiing! If that was not enough, we could choose between nordic (cross country) and downhill. I’ve skied downhill since I was 5, but I’ve never tried cross country in my life, so I took up a challenge. After weekends of running and skating on skis on tracks specifically chosen for cross country skiers, our supervisor gave us a chance of a lifetime (I say this because otherwise I might have never got the chance to do the marathon I will write about) – I was going to do a 32km (~20 miles) marathon on the Alps! Among hundreds of professional and recreational nordic skiers, here I was, only skied two weeks before jumping on this course, in the back, where the ‘Just for Fun’ skiers stood still waiting for the shot to start the marathon.

Now, the technology part. Although I have done a lot of sports, and still do, my physical condition and stamina could not help me go 1 mile, let alone ski 20 miles. I lost breath if I ran for a 600 feet, and here I was, sweating about how am I actually going to finish this course.

I put my iPod in the arm pocket of my ski jacket, my iPhone in the other pocket, put my earphones on, closed my eyes, and exhaled slowly. Here we go.
The other skiers quickly out-skied me, since my speed was nothing exciting either, and I was slowly on my way, people clapping and cheering me on, even though they do not even know who I am, giving me some hope that I might actually get through this. Coldplay songs ring in my ears, then Adele suddenly gets the shuffle turn, and then some random mixes of Eminem, Linkin Park, Lana, Oliver Dragojevic, Drake, Swedish House Mafia kept me going. The most random playlist I could create pointed my focus on the melodies, and my legs and feet went on automatic as I was slowly breezing past the falling snow and some other skiers, if I was lucky. I had gone 10 miles without noticing, and felt even more excited, pumped and sped up, as much as I could. After a while, no matter how fast I was going, I had skiers way past me, and some way behind me. The track was huge, in the mountain woods, and although I could see the tracks, I decided to check how much I actually have left. My iPhone pointed out that I was going on the right direction, only 17 miles to go, and a huge smile spread across my face as I suddenly regained energy to speed up a bit more.

I was going much slower than the experienced skiers did. An hour went by, and the first people have surely crossed the line by now, and here I was, dragging my body with what strength I had in my arms and my legs, and could not wait for the downhill parts, where I could gain speed without even trying. I was happy I didn’t fall during my adventure through the white snow spread on the ground. My iPod keeps surprising me with my favorite songs (disregarding the fact that I created the playlist), and guessing what Shuffle prepared next for me was my go-to game just so I don’t blank out and realize how far behind I actually am.

I stop for a cup of tea on the stands, have a brief chat with the people standing nearby, and get cheered on as I continue on.

’10 more miles to go’ displayed itself proudly on the screen on my smartphone, I put a huge grin on my face again, and continue my merry way. After a certain while, I couldn’t really feel my hands and feet, or my entire body for that matter, but the music, the map on the phone, and the people around kept me going. I skied, and was grateful my body was not holding me back, like it usually does in even less physically challenging conditions.

Funnily enough, the ‘Eye of the Tiger’ gave me an energy and mind boost, and ‘Yellow’ calmed my thoughts as I found myself actually singing out loud, waving at people, and completely forgetting about what I am actually doing (Automatic-mode again).
After almost 3 hours of non-stop skiing, I didn’t even need to check my iPhone to see how much I have left – I could see the finish line through the snow storm that had started 10 minutes prior to that moment. I decided to stop the music, and finally put my focus on the marathon. Ironically, I was almost falling before I reached the line, the exhaustion had just hit me. Like it wasn’t bad enough that the finish line was staying open just for me and a couple of people behind me. People already claimed first, second and third places, hours ago, and here I was, hauling myself like a snail.

I cross the finish line, and it doesn’t even feel as exciting as I hoped it would be. Maybe it was because the timer was blinking at 3:15 hours, or the fact that the person behind the finish line was impatiently waiting to hand me a badge so as to honor  me finishing this incredulous marathon. I grab the silver badge, and as slowly as I skied before, I took of my skis and sat down, glancing at the 20% battery on my iPod, and the turned off iPhone whose battery I exhausted 10 minutes prior to the finish. And then it hits me. I am overwhelmed with joy, pride and amazement at what my body and my brain did today. I didn’t care that it took me 3 hours and 15 minutes to finish a marathon which took the first placed skier only 45 minutes – I accomplished something today, but it wasn’t just me.

If it weren’t for the iPod and iPhone (not pointing out a brand here, any mp3 and smartphone would do), my focus would have been on myself, and exhaustion would have hit before I even reached to finish half the course. I took my free gifts and coupons, and joined the group for some good Austrian beer (which was obviously completely legal) and laughs.

As we packed our skis to go back to the college, after a 3 day marathon-prep and marathon-skiing trip, I fall asleep exhausted, and finish the 10% of battery that was left on the iPod. My marathon bib was then displayed in my dorm room proudly until the rest of the year.

And I overcame what I thought was my limiting factor, with the simple blessings of technology that I had with me that day. Apart from the bib and the badge, the only other thing that proves as a reminder of how much I could actually do is this photo (with not-so-ridiculously photogenic me crossing the finish line):

And now it got me thinking how I give credit to technology helping me cross that line, and rightfully so. I did something, through the easy access of entertainment products that are discredited everyday about how their entertainment values override their usefulness.