In Spring 2019, I ran the Sketchers Performance LA Marathon and I was so happy to be running in the city I consider my home away from home🏃🏼♀️🇺🇸
I was representing three charities that day that were close to my heart and I wanted to run well for them.
It was also my first marathon after my grandad passed and I wanted to do him proud.
So that’s exactly what I set out to do and I was running a great race. It was arguably one of my best runs yet until at Mile 20, I ran past an 18 year old boy close to collapse.
I slowed down and kept looking backwards and I watched at least 100 people run by him, not because they were bad people but because they were far too focused on the finish line to stop.
I also had a decision to make.
A personal best or the kid?
I zig zagged backwards through the crowd of runners and just managed to reach the boy before he fell over.
I introduced myself, carried him over to the side and insisted we took the time to get cool, refuelled and healthy. And to my surprise, the boy was determined to finish. So after a prolonged break we decided to take the race step by step and no matter how long it took, we’d cross the finish line together.
The boy’s name was Julian. He was 18 at the time. It was his first marathon and he was doing it as part of a school program. He loved music with a passion but had too much stage fright to perform in front of anyone. We spent most of the next 6 miles discussing how he could combat that.
Julian is now turning 21. He’s in college. He still loves music and we still message from time to time. In fact, he messaged recently to tell me he’s now part of a band, they’ve just had their first live gig on stage and he loved every second of it.
I’ve never remembered a single race finish time.
We all run for different and valid reasons but think how different a race could be if we paid more attention to the moment and not the finish line.
Big love, Meg 💛✨
