“I knew that I was hopefully going to finish, but as Kobi said in his speech yesterday, until the last few days he didn’t really know for sure that he was going to finish. That was really the same for me as well.”
As the race presses into its final days I wanted to give the runners a break and so have asked a race veteran Harita to tell me a little more about her experience here last year.
“Even if you are watching from the outside and say, O, this person is definitely going to finish. But if you are actually running the race how do you really know you are going to finish? Every moment is in God’s hands.”
Harita tells me that late in her race last year she received a message from William, someone whom she had never ever met before. “He said to me in a message, I know exactly how you feel. You will finish, so enjoy every moment, and live in every moment. That is exactly what you have to do.”
Of course that is the ideal way of accepting all our life experiences but I ask Harita if there are any techniques that might help. “For sure gratitude is probably the biggest, and happiness, and even just pretending to be happy. Even if you don’t feel happy. That is a huge trick.”
“Gratitude and happiness give you so much strength. Just try and find things that you can be grateful for.”
“Kobi also mentioned yesterday the importance of realizing all the support and love from the community of people here. You can connect more with the other runners and all the people who are here helping. They are appreciating that you are here running and doing something so special.”
“You look forward so much to finishing. But at the same time, you should try and value every moment of this incredible opportunity.”
Near the end I asked Harita about the experience of those runners who can’t manage to complete the distance. “I have only done the race once, and by God’s grace I managed to finish it. Which I can’t believe now that I am out here. At the same time I have so much admiration for those people who don’t finish.”
She had just finished singing with the Enthusiasm-Awakeners and said that she was observing and admiring all the runners as they went by. In particular she mentioned Smarana ,and admiring all the determination and integrity he was demonstrating. “I thought that was something so inspiring for all humanity.”
The Board at the Start of Day 48…*Totals may not be accurate… The Magic Number is 2,801*
Camp early
