After a rather foolish New Year’s Eve decision to sign-up for the Brighton Half Marathon, then trying to get myself into some sort of reasonable shape, today I joined thousands of others on a beautiful sunny (but a bit windy) Sunday morning to complete the 13-or-so miles.
I was collecting for Mid Downs Radio, a local hospital radio run by volunteers and providing music to patients and staff 24/7.
What struck me most about the day was not the aching legs, the wishing I had started slower, or the realisation that wind in your face is the same as running up a hill. It was that most of the people participating were there for a reason, either to achieve a personal goal or to collect for a worthy cause, or both of course.
The course was along the seafront, an out and back course, which means you often see others running in the opposite direction. You get to see the “elites” whizzing past, and you get to see a lot of people like yourself.
Then you see those at the back, the slow ones, really struggling, really pushing boundaries. It made me feel a bit of a fraud – yes it is still really hard for me, but I am relatively fit and healthy, and at worst I could have just walked to finish the distance. But there are some that were really really trying, pushing themselves to their limits, struggling with every one of the 25,000 steps, but fiercely determined because they had an important cause that relied on them to raise money, or a lost relative that must be remembered.
You don’t always find inspiration in the successful, the fastest, the fittest, the beautiful.
No, it is those that struggle, those that try their hardest and dig the deepest, those that stay determined, those that must meet that important goal, even if it means coming last. That is where I found my inspiration today.