Running Miracles

When a friend of my husband's found out that we were training for a marathon, he suggested that we rent a movie called Saint Ralph (PG-13). So we did, and it was delightful. Set in the 1950's, it's the story of a 14 year old boy who tries everything to get his mother to wake up from a coma. "It's going to take a miracle," he's told. But later, in an offhand remark, he's told that him winning the Boston marathon "would be a miracle." He puts these two statements together and decides that that's what he needs to do to save his mother--win the Boston marathon. The movie reminded me how much mental strength is involved in marathon running. And watching the actual Boston marathon (well, the TV version) on Monday reinforced that. It was cold in Boston, with brutal winds and rain... but that didn't stop the runners. These are tough people. Tough, determined people. And although I was rooting for Deena Kastor to win the women's, I couldn't help but feel thrilled for Russia's Lidia Grigoryeva as she held up her trophy. And the men's winner, Kenya's Robert Cheruiyot--what a story there! His parents gave him and his siblings away when they were children because they couldn't afford to feed them, and now his running victories have enabled him to reunite his family and give them a better life. Which just goes to prove that running miracles don't only happen in the movies.