Work Place Chaplaincy Scotland Blog

He just kept going...

wellies

In overalls and wellies, the unknown 61-year-old farmer stood at the start line of the 544-mile Sydney to Melbourne ultramarathon. No one believed he was running, especially when he took his false teeth out as they rattled when he ran! writes East of Scotland Regional Organiser Chic Lidstone in his this month's 'Workplace Word'.

He had never raced before and wanted to find out what it was like and the dates were free in his diary, so here he was. He had no sponsors and no training, apart from herding sheep and cattle on his farm. After the first day the organisers were concerned that elderly Cliff wouldn’t make it but as the race progressed their concern turned to amazement as he just kept shuffling along in his wellies.

The race is thought to be one of the hardest endurance races in the world taking six or seven days to complete. Contestants can eat and sleep as they choose, often running for 18 hours and sleeping for six. No one told Cliff this, so he just kept on running through the night. He won the race in 5 days,15 hours and four minutes, shattering the previous record by almost two days! He took the $10000 prize money which he didn’t know about, and promptly gave $2000 each to the other 5 runners!

His secret was that he didn’t stop. He just kept going as he had done when rounding up the sheep on the farm which he would do for days (and nights) without stopping.

You can have fun by checking this by simply ‘Googling’ Cliff Young.

But it got me thinking about keeping going especially during those dark hours and difficult times. After all, here we are approaching Easter because we kept going through winter. For many people Easter celebrates the hope of life because Jesus kept going through the darkness; “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it”. Churchill is quoted as saying, “if you’re going through hell, keep going”!

So like Cliff, if you’re in a dark place at the moment, keep going – but reach out for help!

Capital team
TV stint for Tony

 vcs2

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