No, this article isn’t about me, though like you even I could do with some cheerleaders cheering me on once in a way. As I watch the cheerleaders at the IPL matches I remember an article that appeared in one of our national dailies, and as I read on, tears came to my eyes. The author talked about the New York Marathon which is a forty-five kilometre race that ends at Central Park in Manhattan.

The author said that about one and a half million people lined the sides of the road, in freezing temperatures, to watch and to cheer. But they had not come to watch the professionals who run like lightning. They had come to cheer the ‘little guys, the nameless faces, the guys next door, the guys who do their nine to five jobs and train only on weekends, who have no corporate sponsors, the guys who run only to prove something to themselves.’

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I witnessed the New York City Marathon this morning. I heard there were fifty-one thousand participants this year and I am sure that nearly half of New York was out cheering them as they ran. There was a loud shout as the first runners came into view. The crowd went into an ecstasy of clapping, cheering and fist-pumping, cheering them to their glory, as music from various music systems filled the air.

But not for a moment did I see even any of the participants look at us. Their faces were intent, bodies resolute, eyes fixed. They had only one purpose, to win. I doubt they heard the crowd. I’m sure they saw nothing except their goal. I saw muscles straining, but did not see tiredness or fatigue. By the time they reached my spot they had already run twenty miles. They had another six miles left, and no shouts, or applause clouded their hearing except the sound of exultation as they crossed the finishing line.

Lelisa Desisa clocked 2 hours 5 minutes and 59 seconds as he came first.
Nearly an hour later, even more, came hundreds of others. But there was a difference. I saw the same straining muscles, the same resoluteness, but I also saw them acknowledging us, smiling as they heard someone shouting their name, waving as they heard the cheering of bystanders urging them on.

Every cheer that went up helped them in the next stride and the next and the next. These were not the professionals I’d seen an hour or more back, these were those who wanted more than anything else to complete those twenty-six miles and go home to friends and family and shout, “I completed the marathon!”

I’ve been told that the feeling of triumph one gets after finishing such a gruelling race is more than the victorious feeling after most other achievements.

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Whenever you find yourself doubting how far you can go, just remember how far you have come. Remember everything you have faced, all the battles you have won, and all the fears you have overcome.

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