I just read where people who had run the recent Atlanta Marathon were informed that the race was actually 554 feet short of the 26.2 mile standard for a marathon. Apparently, some cones had been misplaced which guided runners along the route which inadvertently resulted in the race being shorter than planned.
Over 2000 runners were counting on their times for this race to qualify for other races like the Boston Marathon. Now their times would no longer count.
Marathons are quite popular and taken very seriously. That’s why they always certify a course before and after each race. Before the race, the length was verified, but apparently someone moved some cones just prior to the race. This wasn’t caught until the course length was going through certification after the race.
Imagine putting in all the training and all the effort to run this marathon with hopes of qualifying for other races, only to have your hopes dashed by an unintentional error. I’m sure the person that moved those cones had no intention of sabotaging the race and was only trying to make things better.
The runners who will perform better in their next race will be the ones that take this error in stride and don’t let it get to them. Those that focus and worry about it happening again in their next race will surely struggle to maintain the mental focus it takes to run a marathon.
Those of us with Myasthenia Gravis will have setbacks. There will be “oops” moments when we think we are making progress only to learn something has occurred which may have prevented us from reaching our goal. We can’t allow these little setbacks to affect us. We have to accept them, push through them, and continue to run our battle with MG.
We will experience “Oops” moments in life. They happen. We just can’t allow them to crush us. There’s another race tomorrow. I’m not going to let what happened in the past prevent me from running again or giving it my best effort. I choose to focus on the dream. Won’t you join me?