Running Your Race



When I started school, I struggled to learn. From first grade on I just got progressively worse. My teachers would send home packets of my graded assignments and ask my parents to sign them. Dad would patiently sit with me at the kitchen table and help me redo my school work. I’d return the assignments and then repeat the process the following week. Year after year.

Then in the summer of 1968 the Olympic Games were televised from Mexico. I wasn’t interested, but my Dad loved sports. During those games, something amazing happened. John Akhwari, the Tanzania long distance marathon runner was 30 kilometers into his race when he fell and severely dislocated his knee. While race officials urged him to quit, Akhwari refused. They bandaged his leg and he hobbled on. 




An hour after the race had already been won, Akhwari collapsed as he crossed the finish line. Even though he was in tremendous pain, reporters asked him why he hadn’t quit. Akhwari said, “My country did not send me 5000 miles to start the race. They sent me 5000 miles to finish it.”


Dad had me watch the replay on our black and white television. It was sobering, but inspiring.


I began the next school year with such trepidation. Dad reminded me that Akhwari stayed in the race because it was important to those who had sent him. School was important to my parents and my future; I needed to stay in the race. But the work was getting harder and I struggled even more. I kept redoing my assignments at home. I may have been in last place, but I stayed in the race. 


Eventually, that extra work paid off and I crossed the school finish line.


But then came adulthood when nothing I did seemed to be successful. I called Dad and told him I felt like quitting. Dad hadn’t mentioned Akhwari in years, but he did on that phone call. Hard days aren’t the days you quit, not if you want to finish well. Dad said that Akhwari proved more by finishing last, than he would have by finishing first. It’s not about how you feel, it’s about finishing the race. After that phone call, I realized I just needed to keep running my race.


Eventually the extra work paid off, and the years ahead got better.


One of the last letters I wrote to my dad, I thanked him for telling me Akhwari’s story. I finally realized after all the years, that Dad wasn’t interested in me winning the race, but learning how to stay in the race. 


It’s not about the win, but it’s about who we disappoint when we quit. 





 “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” Hebrews 12:1


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