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.
