Run

Run Your Race

This is an assembly looking at running your race – keeping going – persevering!

The Run that became a race – True Story

A girl decided to go running one morning down along her local canal. As she ran along part of the canal, she suddenly realised she was in the middle of loads of other runners. Looking around she realised they were part of an official race. Feeling a bit embarrassed as she wasn’t an official runner, she set off along another route away from the main body of runners. She then decided to go another direction. As she turned and went along the new direction, she again found herself caught up in a load of runners. Even more funny was the fact that this was near the end of the race and they were hundreds of people on either side cheering the runners on and over the finish line! Unable to escape she had to run over the finish line, telling people she wasn’t in the race – and then kept going!

Paula Radcliffe Video – London Marathon record – 1:43

Direct Video Link – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLLSKmpMKe4

In 2003, the British athlete Paul Radcliffe smashed the women’s world record for Marathon’s in London. This record hasn’t been beaten to date (April 2016). Despite suffering from asthma and with a running style that wasn’t the smoothest, Paula did her own thing, ran a race where she aimed to get faster in the second half of the race than the other and put up with great personal discomfort and pain in order to win the race. Paula knew her race plan and she stuck to it.

Jasmin Paris, winner of Montane Spine Race, 2019

In 2019, an amazing and very humble woman called Jasmin Paris won the Montane Spine Race (268 miles across the Pennine Way). She not only won the race, she set a new world record, beating male and female times. Along the route she even ‘expressed’ baby milk for her baby!

Video Clip, Chariots Of Fire – Get up and finish the race – 2:10

Direct Video Link – https://youtu.be/I4e5Xfmc8zQ

In this true clip (this event actually happened at an athletics meet in 1923), Eric Liddell trips but gets back up and wins the race. Sometimes things come against us in life, but we should get up, dust ourselves down, learn any lessons and keep on going!

The Bible

In the Bible, a guy called Paul wrote this, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful.” He also let us know that, “Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.”

The writer of another book of the Bible said this, “…let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.”

You see, these guys lived a good life, lived for their faith and for what they believed in. They had a big perspective and were prepared to sacrifice in order for the greater good. They didn’t just look at what was happening now, at what they could get and how they could just enjoy themselves at any price and at any cost to others. They had a bigger purpose and lived their life to the full in order to make a difference and to live life not just for now but thinking about the forever after! They lived for God.

Paula Radcliffe knew what to do in order to win the marathon and she did. So did Jasmin Paris, winner of the Montane Spine Race. But as a Christian, I believe there is more to life than just the things we can get now. You see, whatever we get won’t last and we never know when life may change for us or even end. But you can live in a way that means what you do will last beyond your life.

Video Clip – Chariots of Fire (the race) – 4:26

Direct Video Link – https://youtu.be/uwyltmUR3MU

Quotes from the video – “The good book says, He that honours me, I will honour.” And, “So where does the power come from to see the race to it’s end… from within”

As a Christian, I believe that God has the very best life for you. He’s not someone who wants to kill your fun but someone who wants to make you to be all that he’s made you to be. Just like the true story shown in the video of Eric Liddell in Chariots Of Fire.