Running when no one cheers

It's kind of an odd concept, the whole road race thing.
I pay money to run. People cheer me on. I finish and go home.

But people really get into it!
I have run a lot of races. Some 5k's and then half marathons and marathons with a couple of 5, 6, and 10 miles thrown into the mix.
And they are all the same...people everywhere, decked out in their brand new running gear ready to do their thang.

Today I ran the Newburyport 10 mile road race with my dad.
As I was running it, I was thinking about the difference from just last week when I had also run 10 miles.
I ran by myself, in my town.
No one cheered me on. I didn't get any high fives, or any kind of water breaks along the way, and no one yelled out - you got this! Good job! Keep it up!

And here tonight as we ran, we had tons of people handing out water, orange slices, playing music, giving high fives, spraying us with water and yelling out constant encouragement.

What a difference that makes.
Having people supporting you, encouraging you and helping you.
When I ran by myself, it was all I could muster to keep running, fight through the pain and make it home! And tonight, it motivated me to keep moving.

Races get me all pumped up.
They make me want to run more, but I gotta say that in all of the hours and hours of running I have done, I have sure learned a lot about life.

And if cheering me one when I am simply run makes such a big difference in my life, imagine how much of a difference it can make if I decide to start cheering someone on when they are going through rough times in life.

It's huge, people. It's huge.
We need each other. Don't think we don't.
Don't fall in to the whole "I'm all set" way of living.
We were created to be relational. To be there for each other. To encourage and build each other up. Because we need it. And maybe I need it today, but you will need it next week. And maybe you need it next week and someone else will need it the following week.

It's hard running when no one cheers.

This week, make it a priority to hand out water and give high fives...metaphorically speaking.

Be the cheerleader for people even if you don't know them.
The people who were cheering me on tonight, didn't know me.
And you what? It didn't even matter.
They gave me what I needed exactly when I needed it and it helped me finish the race.
Let's help each other finish the race.


Here's a before and after of the race tonight :)