It Is All About the Medal

By: Seamus Cusack
Submitted: 2007-01-17 16:25:56
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Running a marathon is like life. There is a beginning, middle and end. Not only that there are the obstacles that come up. For the average person a marathon will take at least four hours. This is four hours of a conversation in your head. The marathon is run in your mind. The stories I told myself were amazing. The stories were all based on my experiences of life. Some of these stories were empowering and supportive but others were not. The marathon was like a rerun of my life and my opinion of myself determined my outcome. When they put the medal on me I felt acknowledged, not only for finishing the marathon but for being a success in life. I have never been the same since.

My life works because I have the medal to prove it. Life is about saying what I am going to do and doing it. Doing the marathon is a condensed version of a commitment. If you stop while running it is unlikely you will start again. My body froze up. I could not move. My desire was to get going and out of the blue a man pushed me off. The passion, desire, commitment and determination were there but I could not move and he picked up on that and gave me a push start. The marathon is getting in touch with your inner power—the real you. I think we all have a poor opinion of ourselves at a very deep level and running a marathon is access to removing that. I didn’t know myself until I ran a marathon.

It is also amazing to observe what happens to my fellow runners. Some people don’t have the right shoes and their feet land all funny every step they take. I always think that the preparation we put into the marathon has a parallel with how we prepare for everything in life. A marathon is twenty six and a quarter miles roughly which is approximately fifteen thousand steps. So each foot hits the ground seven and a half thousand times. They say proper preparation prevents piss poor performance. Maybe human beings don’t prepare. Maybe that is why there is so much disharmony in the world. No one is preparing for what they are doing.

Another thing that amazed me was people giving up so close to the finish. The last mile was like a battle field of casualties. So close and yet so far away. One guy was lying down hugging his knee only yards from the finish. About a mile from the finish a guy was stumbling around like a zombie. He appeared to be unaware of where he was or what he was doing. My heart went out to him. I offered him my last tube of gel and he took it and said “God bless you”. I have never felt so acknowledged before or since. I don’t know if he finished but I am sure he did. I know me just speaking to him centred him and maybe that was all he needed. We need eachother to get through whether in a marathon or in life. There is a camaraderie that is unique. It is such a great honour to be able to run a marathon. Once an ailment sets in there is nothing we can do. So I will say to anyone who can walk to consider doing a marathon and their life will never be the same again. I can guarantee them that.

Unfortunately I left it until I was forty seven to do that. But of course better late than never and it really is all about the Medal.

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