Surely I knew of the history yet the specifics were never important to me. South Louisiana marches, or in this case, runs to its own drummer, and Mardi Gras filled the need for crowd gathering excitement. Back to what I did know. In a BC era Athens was in a war and needed re-enforcements. In place of no technology, a runner named Pheidippides made two inspiring runs to carry news. First one was 153 miles to Sparta to request help and then after Athens eked out a win, the second run was 26 miles to the Acropolis to announce loosely translated, “We are the winners!” before dropping dead. The second run over years has spread across nations to various cities to entice competitors in the 26.2 run. Athletes train and amass a list of when, where, and how long they have participated. As far as I know, none have breasted the final tape calling forth the last line of Browning’s commemorative poem by gasping, “Athens is saved,” and then dropping dead.
The Marathon is this week’s topic because transportation in Houston took modern GPS to survive Sunday’s traveling demands. Beginning at 4:00 am, a sequence of cones and barrels were laid out to close off cross intersections for the 26.2 miles of street running. If you lived on the east side or the far west of the city and needed only to travel farther in either of those directions, your life may have gone smoothly. Otherwise, you probably joined viewers to watch a total of 30,000 runners stream past for a half and a whole race. Supposedly, areas were to be opened up at a specified time, but either someone didn’t get the message or the walkie-talkies weren’t working. Noontime came before the circle became a route of travel again.
Non-athletic that I was and age I am now, the enticement of the race did not come near me. In the back of my mind, though, I am aware that before ever running, the commitment has to be to training. I check my Garmin watch during the day to make sure that number of steps toward 1 mile, a long way from 26.2, is increasing. After pneumonia last winter that’s progress, and I have a goal of strong round 2 miles by the end of 2026. Each part of our lives takes practice from legwork to deeds of kindness to wisdom in choices. We work to do well for ourselves and for those who line the way and cheer us on.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,….strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees.
Hebrews 12:1, 12
Let Me Tell Ya 