To Run

I had the chance to watch and cheer

the runners today.

As we walked up to the marathon,

The last mile of the race,

The tears started to well up.

I didn’t expect to have such an immediate emotional reaction.

But it came.

The sound of crowds cheering and the sight of runners running

brings me back to a race I ran

where crowds cheered me on

A physical marathon I ran

at a time when I was also running an emotional marathon

I didn’t know I could or would finish.

Seeing those runners reminded me of that moment

and reminded me that we are all in a race.

Life is a marathon we are all running.

Something we prepared for

and now find ourselves in the middle of.

And there I was watching this race—entranced by their putting one step in front of the other

and another and another.

I loved them. I loved them for running. I loved them for training and being there and showing up and just running.

I was reminded that no one’s race is the same.

I watched a man throw his arms up to illicit the cheers of others.

Such confidence and energy.

I watched a shivering woman who, in the last mile, was walking, unable to run anymore.

But though she was shaking, there she was, wrapped in an emergency blanket, with a woman in an army uniform, arm around her, walking with her in this last leg of the race.

And it was just beautiful.

Because, as tired and cold and shaking as she was—she was not alone.

None of the runners were alone. They ran next to others and they were cheered on by others.

Every runner passed through hundreds of people

who were cheering them on.

And I thought about life and how

Often we don’t see those people who are cheering us on.

But I felt and was reminded

that there are those who cheer us on—sometimes seen, but more often unseen.

And our role—

is to run.