The Marathon Runner

An eighty plus woman ran her first Marathon and received a standing ovation from the crowd. When she was asked for the motivation behind her daredevilry, she said that she had done it for her dream. When she was a little girl, she had started to play basketball but had given up soon after because not knowing the game made her feel small and inferior. That instance of giving up without even trying remained her regret throughout. Finally, she decided to learn basketball again but by that time she was too old. She had not exercised and played all her life. Everyone tried to dissuade her and said that she would end up breaking her knees or getting a heart attack. But she did not want to get afraid once more. She started jogging, and to her and everybody's surprise, survived! Running was difficult for her but she kept at it, reminding herself of how painful giving up was. She ran her first 10 km competitive run at the age of seventy-seven. This encouraged her to set higher targets. At eighty, she ran her first marathon. People started calling her 'The Running Gran.' She ran for twenty more years. She became the oldest marathon runner of the world and went down as a legend in the sporting history.

At the line of start stood
A paragon of elderlyhood
Alone in all the young she stood
Calm and ran thinking she could
Complete the tough, long run.

Complete the run she did indeed
And kept her spirits and kept her speed
Up stood in ovation the crowd frenzied
As her eighty years scurried
To the finishing line.

Later, amidst the eulogies
Many asked if she would please
Share how she in her eighties
Could run so, with such an ease!
She said, “I had my fantasies.

I was seven and a seventy
When I began my sports spree.
Warned they and I did agree
That runs would hurt my heart and knee
And death would trail me threateningly.

But you see it was a dream
To in the long run reign supreme
Over the dire lack of steam
That sixty years upstream
The young girl I had been had shown.

That girl took up basket ball
Her skill progressed at a crawl
She felt slow, dull, dumb and small
And, instead of climbing o’er the wall
She stopped playing basket ball.

I never did pick the ball again
In later years, I felt much pain
At being so craven and inane
I finally decided to play again
But now all thought I’d missed the train.

It was too late, and I was grey,
And past my prime, and my heyday
Had slouched away, with little play.
I was too old, and not fit, aye?
I started jogging anyway.

At seventy-seven for the first time
Thus I thrust myself in the grime
And sweat and strain of a lifetime.
I would be dead by the bedtime
But in my mind a voice would chime,

‘Given up too soon I’d once before-
An albatross I always bore.
That ache was more than this footsore.
This pain is that ache’s cure.
I can endure. I can endure.’

I did not die. I was not maimed.
One year later, I claimed
With pride, and with all aches tamed,
The first title that I had aimed-
The Grannies run of 10 km.

That was when I set my sight
On Marathon. I’ve won the fight.
My maiden ‘thon I ran tonight.
Ah, my delight! I say with spright
‘A sportswoman I am all right!’”

All that happened years ago
The ‘Running Gran’ kept on her toe
For twenty years with the halo
Of being the eldest to still run so.
As a legend in sports down she did go.


Japinder Gill