Just the other day, while scrolling through the many tweets that were present on my twitter feed, I found one that caught my interest. It was a tweet by Ryan Hall, and it simply said, “My thoughts on who is the greatest runner of all time,” with a link to his blog. Curious as to who one of the great runners of today’s time was referring to, I decided to read it.
It wasn’t what I was expecting.
His blog wasn’t about an olympic-winning, record-breaking all star. Instead it was about who he thought God might consider the greatest runner. How it might be an ultra runner who has never ran a race, but enjoys every step. Or the runner who trained his or her butt off to run a marathon. Or those who run in memory or for charity. The list goes on. And then he says this:
Whoever Jesus would put in front of me I am confident of this: that it would be the heart of that runner that God sees as great and the ability they have to run with a heart full of love for God, self, and others, not the speed of their legs.
I thought it was humbling of America’s half-marathon record-holder to say this. It’s one of the many reasons I admire Ryan Hall. At the end of the day he is not running to break a record or win a race. He runs for something greater, something he believes in. And it is nice to be reminded that any runner can do that.
