The Dream Lives

Many of us will ring in the new year in the same manner. We will watch endless football games and dream and wish that we were the ones wearing the pads and making the plays. In October many will watch the fall classic and remember the days when we called our shots in the backyard during hotly contested games of whiffle ball.
Who would not want that chance to share the same field as many sports legends and heroes of our time? What little girl would not give anything to lace up her skates and compete for an Olympic medal. What little boy would not want to exchange high fives with his favorite sports legend after they competed together for a victory? Chances are, for more than 99% percent of our society, those chances will never come.
Those of us who run however, get the chance to live out those dreams.
Other than elite track events, world championships, and the Olympics, casual runners, local elites, and the first timer, can toe the line with gold medalists and world record holders. They get the chance to say they were competing against the world's best. In fact, even this past year, 40,000 New York City competitors, can say they defeated the world record holder Haile Gebrasellise as he dropped out at mile 16.
There will never be a time when a football enthusiast will get the chance to play a single down with any pro or even college football team just because they wanted to.
Running is truly the people's sport. The 11 minute miler will get to raise his arms in celebration over the same finish line as the winner who pockets a six figure purse and averaged 4:50 per mile. In what other sport can a competitor have 2.5 million people cheering for them in person? Granted not every race is like that, but many are.
In the end we get to share our journey with those that we will never actually get to compete against. Runners can keep their childhood dreams and live them out as fully as possible. At the same time we are maintaining a healthy lifestyle and bettering our own future. Men and women who dedicate whole weekends to drinking beer and playing softball to the point of fights breaking out could learn a lesson. Runners really do compete against the pros, and we do it in front of thousands of spectators and it pays dividends tonour bodies that will last for years to come. So run on, dream the dreams, and remember us runners have many more glory days to come.