Sunny Sundays are my favourite kind of Brighton days. Especially when I get to have a wander along by the sea. This morning was the Brighton half marathon. I watched for quite a while, hoping to catch a glimpse of two friends who were running it. But there were literally thousands of runners. Quite incredible. I have a lot of respect for them, especially standing at 1 mile from the finish and seeing the pain etched on their faces. Yet still they ran.
What struck me most was the people cheering. And also, the people not cheering. A lot of people were watching, and there were some groups who constantly shouted, cheered, banged drums and encouraged. But there were also a lot of people who stayed pretty silent. And I have to be honest, that included me for the most part. It's so stupid but because I was on my own I felt embarrassed to clap and cheer. Even though it's obvious that it makes a difference to the runners, even though I knew I'd want people to cheer for me if I was running, and even though a bit of embarrassment on my part is nothing compared to running 13 miles! And still, I only cheered a couple of times. Yep, I'm a little ashamed.
This is a bit cliche, but watching the race made me think about life.
Made me think that we are often too slow to encourage each other.
Made me think it's easy to judge how well (or not) someone is doing, by looking at how far along the road they are in comparison to others. But we have NO idea what they've overcome to be there in the first place. We have no idea how much preparation each person has done, and their reasons for being there. Judging and comparing are just no help to any of us really!
Made me think that even after you've finished one race, there are still other challenges to face - like getting home, like loving your family, like facing whatever else is going on in your life.
So there we go, a few marathon thoughts. Happy Sunday! :-)
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