This past Sunday, Shalane Flanagan crossed the finish line of the New York City Marathon in first place with a time of 2 hours 26 minutes 53 seconds. She won by over a minute (which doesn’t sound like much, but believe me, it is). As she crossed the finish line with tears in her eyes, many of those in the crowd and those watching at home were feeling similar emotions. Why was Shalane’s win such a big deal? Well, not only was it very unexpected, but it was also the first win for an American woman since 1977. She broke a forty year losing streak.
As a young female runner who has followed Shalane’s career for the past few years, this was a huge moment. It’s amazing how many setbacks she’s endured, only to come out on top. It was just earlier this year that Shalane was sidelined from the Boston Marathon due to a back injury. She had been hoping to achieve a podium finish. The injury took weeks of time off and cross training to recover from and Shalane didn’t know if it would affect her performance at next year’s Boston Marathon, let alone the NYC Marathon just later this year. Needless to say, Shalane’s first place finish was extremely unanticipated and well deserved. Her expression crossing the finish line says it all.
It’s runners like Shalane who remind me that no goal is unattainable and that you can do anything with dedication, hard work, and persistence. Running is a difficult sport to dedicate yourself to. It’s repetitive, injury inducing, and physically grueling, yet we continue to do it. Not every day will be easy, and some days continuing will seem nearly impossible. The important thing is to keep going. I couldn’t picture my life without running. Maybe it’s because the difficulty and the hard work make the little victories that much better.
So on behalf of all the runners out there, thank you Shalane. It’s moments like these that remind me why I get out there every day and reignite my love for this wonderful, wonderful sport.
Source 1: http://cdn.abclocal.go.com/content/wabc/images/cms/automation/vod/2606788_1280x720.jpg
Source 2: http://d1m4d2e972o4sj.cloudfront.net/photo/5a0231a581527.jpeg?width=1400
Source 4: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/6b/9e/68/6b9e68790f5524ac4b6431c2a8509baf.jpg