Hearts of a Champion

There is no time limit on finishing the Honolulu Marathon.  Everyone who has the guts to keep going, can taste the victory of completing their race.

Did you see the stride on that guy, Titus, at the finish line?!?  And what the female winner, Vivian, put into her race?  Incredible feats, with the windy conditions.  And so many still out running their race as I write this … Secretariat would be proud.

Something most unexpected happened as I tuned into the Honolulu Marathon this morning.  It began as I watched Titus with his ground eating stride (not 24 foot 11 inches, but close 🙂 ) nearing the finish.  He was 4 MINUTES ahead of the second-place finisher.  Reminded me of another race guaranteed to fill a heart to bursting, one of the greatest of all time, Secretariat winning the Belmont by 31 LENGTHS!

Nothing like the power surge of watching an elite athlete paint their Rembrandt!  But what began as a full heart, grew stronger yet as I realized what winning $25,000 (roughly 13 times the average annual wage in Kenya) would mean to Titus’s folks back home.  I felt the pride of his people, like my very own.  During the interview after the win, I could see he carried the unique graceful presence of the land from which he came.  In fact, he moved like many of the animals I had met on Safari.  This man did not run alone.

But what filled my eyes with tears from sheer grandeur of capacity … with the fullness of all that we can do and be … our vast potential in waiting … was making the link to all the champions that were in my own life, now.  The ones I had met this week alone!

For you see, we all win a race now and then.  But the long ones, the lifelong ones, they are the ones that take the most guts.  They cannot be won in a day, a week or even a decade.  For these are the biggest dreams we carry. The ones that take a lifetime to run.  They come in way too big for the world we arrive in.  That is why they take such revolutionary guts.  And rekindling from other champions by our sides.  We cannot do it alone.

So, come, let us sit, rekindle, talk story … the biggest kind.  What is your marathon?

Dedication:  This one is for Mr. Max and the champions that surround him.  And Lehua still out there running her race along with her incredible support crew.  And my very own, Connection Medicine.  Warmest thanks champs, Dr. P