I was fully aware. The intensity of the moment crowded out concerns about the past or of the future. This was now, now, now. I was so focused that sensations of my immediate situation flooded my consciousness. So much was going on in my head that the passage of time had to slow to accommodate it all.
Perception is reality.
People around me didn't notice a change of pace. My watch kept ticking. Whether the atomic clock gains or loses a few seconds doesn't concern me. We each have a time machine in our heads. We can choose how much to live in the past, to live in the future, and to live in the now.