Ten years ago, at the Peachtree 10k Road Race in Atlanta, Ben Payne was approaching the finish line in first place. The Peachtree is the biggest ten kilometer race in the world, with over 50,000 runners participating each year on the morning of the 4th of July. Having pulled away from his competition, Payne raised his hand with index finger aloft to celebrate his hard-earned victory about 20 meters from the finish line…and was suddenly passed by British runner Scott Overall—who ended up beating Payne by just nine one-hundredths of a second for the victory. Payne crossed the finish line in second, but with his #1 finger still raised to the sky.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said, “Great is the art of beginning, but greater is the art of ending.”
Payne put in all that hard work to train and prepare for the race, and then to run hard and race well for over 6 miles…only to lose in the last fraction of a second by failing to run at full speed through the tape.
It is hard to believe that we’ve just nine days of school remaining. But nine days to go is not the finish line. Let’s all resolve to finish well.
Have a wonderful day.
