Marathon Runners

Many people enjoy running in The Marathon races and that intrigues me. I have watched the New York Marathon and marveled at the number of really old people running and finishing it. For anyone to run for very long distances requires a lot of hard training. The runners of the Marathon race must persevere through the point of collapse. Some call it hitting the wall.   Then they get that second wind and go on and on and on.

Great throngs of runners enter Marathon races and the numbers that drop out of the race along the way is huge. These are hard races to take part in, through city streets - up and down hills over bridges and often in the worst weather. What does it take to finish a race like that?  I had a friend on the board of the YMCA who loved to run long races and he used to speak about hitting the wall and the effort it took to not give up and to on keep running. He would get all excited about the great feeling of exhilaration he would feel once he got past it because he was then able to finish the race he started.

          I remember watching a runner in the New York City Marathon coming in dead last but he finished the race. He was totally exhausted but he did it. That is running with perseverance. That kind of running takes a lot of training. I would not be able to go out and run that kind of race... at this point my legs would turn to rubber. I would need years of race training to even attempt it. To finish the marathon a runner must persevere through the length of the race. Over come every obstacle and reach beyond ones own limits.

Life itself is a kind of marathon where we set high goals and train ourselves to overcome all obstacles including our own pain to reach our goals. It is worth the effort in the long run. - Pun intended.