A Young Widower's Tale
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Finishing the race It was interesting watching the women’s marathon live yesterday morning. As much as I enjoy running, I never thought I’d be able to watch an entire marathon from start to finish without getting bored. But the commentators kept it flowing and showed clips from past Olympic Marathons. Now that I’ve run a marathon and can somewhat relate to what it’s like to actually run one and have Marathon Girl by my side to provide additional insight and commentary I watched the entire race. Some thoughts: The highlight of the race was watching American Deena Kastor come back from 11th place with just a few miles to go and win the bronze medal. Despite the heat and hills she continued running and found herself entering the stadium in third place. Overcome with emotion, she cried the rest of the way to the finish line. In stark contrast gold metal favorite Paula Radcliffe gave up with only four miles left. In tears she sat on the side of the road unable to continue. I was disappointed in Radcliffe. Not because she didn’t break records or score a medal but because she gave up and didn’t finish. Running a marathon is difficult. Not only does an athlete have to be in superb physical shape to complete one but they have to be in good mental shape as well. It takes just about every ounce of mental energy to tell your body to keep going step after step, mile after mile. And it must have been hard for Radcliffe, the female world record holder to watch as the competition pulled away one step at a time When I ran my first marathon last summer an earlier foot injury, plantar fasciitis, cropped up about 17 miles into the race. At times the pain was unbarable. Despite the pain I hobbled on and completed the race. (The year before I watech Marathon Girl finsih a marathon in pain from a broken leg.) It was tempting to stop. After all, who would have blamed me. I was in pain. It was my first Marathon. It was a tough course. Who knows what conintuing to run would have done to my foot? But I didn’t enter the race to give up. I entered the race because I wanted to run a marathon and not knowing if I was going to have a chance to do this again, I kept running. (OK, at some places the pain was so bad I walked but I walked as fast as I could.) I had spent months training for it and I wasn’t going to let a foot injury stop me. At the very least, Radcliffe should have finished even if it meant walking the last four miles. Perhaps if she would have seen some of the clips that NBC played over and over from past Olympic marathons she would have continued. Once such clip was from the 1968 Summer Games in Mexico City. The last runner to finish in the marathon was an athlete from Tanzania, John Stephen Akhwari. He staggered into the stadium bloodied and bandaged and with a broken leg. The few people who were still around gave him a standing ovation. When asked why he didn’t quit he simply said, "My country did not send me half way around the world to start the race; they sent me to finish it.” About the time Radcliffe was being taken from the course past hoards of reporters, Mongolia's Otgonbayar Luvsanlkhundeg, become the final person to finish the marathon. She staggered across the line the nearly 30 minutes after the second to the last runner and almost an hour and a half after the first place finisher. Too bad Radcliffe or the media wasn’t there to witness it. It was probably the most inspirational moment of the Olympic games. You Can Now Purchase Room for Two - 2007-08-31 |
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