Even the great Steve Moneghetti might have run out of breath trying to get through this marathon.
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Finishing a 42-kilometre race in a couple of hours, plus a bit more, is something only the finest of long-distance athletes have achieved.
We're not in that league, nor would most want to, but we certainly have run our own marathon over the past few months.
IN OTHER NEWS:
When the starter's gun was fired and the NSW-Victorian border closed, the community had hoped the COVID-19 race would be run much sooner that it has.
The virus had got out due to Melbourne's bungled hotel quarantine program, but what ended up compounding the Victorian government's mistakes was the dreadfully slow procession to a truly effective contact tracing system.
The upshot of all that on the Border has been a split community, tearing away at businesses, jobs and families.
Repeated calls by community leaders to the NSW government over this extra long, challenging winter of frustration have got nowhere.
But now the finish line is finally in sight.
Where that skinny, cheerful bloke from Ballarat - no stranger to the North East in his day with his Falls Creek training camps - sighted Commonwealth gold, Border region residents can see something equally if not more rewarding.
Come November 23, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has announced, the checkpoints will be gone and a much greater semblance of our old normality will return.
Albury MP Justin Clancy -who it is acknowledged has done all he can to get his Sydney-centric government to take on board the genuine hardship inflicted on the Border - is right to highlight the ongoing trauma that remains.
Our broken community will be reunited, our families will be together for Christmas, but the damage inflicted to reach that point will not be so easily fixed.
It is something we had to do because of this terrible virus, but the cost nevertheless has been substantial.
For now though we can at least bask in the relief of an impending re-opened border.
