When I was young and long before I knew about the realities of a marathon, I recall reading with fascination about Dorando Pietri's struggle to the finish line of the 1908 Olympic Marathon. I was talking with one of the teachers at my school this week regarding the Boston Marathon and the struggling runner who was carried over the finish line. She was fascinated with the drama.
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I have seen these dramas unfold many times at the finish lines of marathons, cross-country races, and Ironman Triathlons. In fact I was one of the countless numbers of runners inspired by Julie Moss and her crawl to the finish line of the 1983 Hawaii Ironman Triathlon. Within months I was swimming and biking and that same year I too, completed an Ironman Distance Triathlon. I wish I had saved a copy of a Boston Herald photograph of a man crawling to the finish line of the Boston Marathon one year. In the photograph and in the videos that played on television of his crawl you could see a female runner stop, pat him on the back, and I assume give him encouragement. I don't know how many people besides myself understood the significance of that photo. It was none other than Julie Moss herself offering encouragement to the crawling man. Who better knows what it feels like to be crawling at the end of a race? Well, I guess it was in 1999. I did a Google search and the only information I could find was a post I made that year so maybe I am the only person to have caught that (Julie was correctly identified in the Boston Herald photo, but there was no mention of her struggle as a triathlete).
This morning, I am again reminded of the frailty of runners and their dogged perseverance to finish a race. First was a story about a runner who finished a 1/2 marathon with a broken leg. The previous year's champion, Krista DuChene had to limp across the finish line in third place, with a broken femur, at the Canadian Half Marathon Championships in Montreal. I would say "good for her" but that can be damaging to your body. She is not, however the first person to finish a race on a broken leg. Sadly, it has happened a few times that I am aware of.
The other story involves a Kenyan elite runner at the 2014 St Anthony’s Marathon in the Italian region of Padua collapsing and struggling towards the finish line. The video of Eliud Magut could be considered disturbing, but not being a doctor, the scene looks similar to many I have seen of runners who have hit the wall and no longer have the energy, despite their fortitude, to keep moving as they wish.
As someone who has pushed the limits for years, I no longer have a desire to run through a serious problem that can damage the body, like running on a broken leg or on a hip that just won't work correctly, and I would hope someone would stop me if I ever got to the point of making a spectacle of myself by trying to finish a race by crawling to the finish.
about the life of Abebe Bikila, the first black African to win a gold medal in the Olympics and the catalyst for the current onslaught of Ethiopian and African running prowess throughout the world today.
film. The Ethiopian actors seemed realistic and the conversations were a mix of English and subtitles. It seemed a lot of the first half of the film revolved around Abebe's blue Volkswagen Beetle as the story slowly developed. I got the sense from watching the actor's portrayals a reaffirmation about Abebe's serious nature as well as a distance from his family and many of his countrymen during the political changes in his country. Abebe desired to make a comeback at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Unfortunately, the accident changed his goals. I expected the film to show a slow decline until his death and that is where I ended up pleasantly surprised. Abebe participated in paralegic sports competitions: first in archery and later in dogsled racing. Who knew? The reception back in Addis Ababa after his dogsled racing victory was especially poignant. Even the commentary at the end of the film was powerful.