I maybe ought to have written this thought last Sunday, but to be honest, I wasn’t even aware that last Sunday was the London Marathon until after I had written last Sunday’s thought. I’m glad that I didn’t write something, because it would have been very different to how I feel today. No doubt some of the 56000 runners will have been listening to their playlist as they ran the 26.2 miles through the streets of London. I too have a playlist although have never listened to it while running, come to think of it, I can’t even remember when I last even broke into a jog. One of my favourite tracks is the 1991 Bryan Adams song (Everything I do) I do it for you, the theme song for the film Robin Hood Prine of Thieves. Even thirty years on, I still love it and it came to mind as I watched some of the pre marathon interviews last Sunday.
I was moved by the girl who was running her first ever marathon on her eighteenth birthday, almost certainly the youngest runner. She was running for McMillan Cancer Care in memory of her dad who had died. It was amazing to hear the story of the woman who had been told three years ago that she had just twelve weeks to live, having just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She was running with a research doctor who was pioneering early diagnostic, none invasive, prodedures that could save thousands of lives reminding us that one woman’s miracle, three years on from her own devastating diagnosis could be experienced by so many more people.
In a quiet area, away from the hustle and bustle of runners getting ready, presenter Gabby Logan spoke with Sergio Aguiar and David Stancombe the fathers of nine year old Alice da Silva Aguiar and seven year old Elsie Dot Stancombe who died in the Southport attack on Monday 29th July 2024. The interview was clearly emotional and painful, touching raw nerves, but these two super heroes were putting themselves through this experiece in memory of their little girls and I can only imagine that the pain of running the 26.2 miles was nothing in comparison to the pain they still felt in their hearts.
This experience on Sunday morning reminded me that events like the London Marathon are much more than simply a sports event. Sure, for some, it is about winning, it is about personal bests, cracking a certain time target. But for the masses, this is no “fun run” this is a tribute to the memory of others, it is an oportunity to raise money so that the lives of others can be changed for ever and as the runners arrive at the finish line, many completely spent, the words of Bryan Adam ring true.
Everything I do, I do it for you and as a Christian, I see a man, brutally nailed to a cross, completely spent and I hear his words It is finished!