It’s a sprint to the finish and the winner is . . .

You’ve run 25 miles in a blazing fast time. You’re exhausted. Your muscles ache. Every step you take hurts more than the last. You hurt in places you didn’t think it was possible to hurt. Your brain is in a fog and has long abandoned you on this hellish adventure. Your arms, legs, and lungs are rebelling. They’ve taken a page from the TV show Survivor and have voted to kick you off the island. And to top it off, Survivor Host Jeff Probst’s famous line “The tribe has spoken” keeps playing on repeat. The phrase echoes incessantly through your thoughts.

You can think of a million and one other things that you’d rather be doing right now. Perhaps, a lobotomy? Hours of cleaning a dirty bathroom and doing an endless pile of laundry? Sign me up. Completing the painful task of filing your annual federal income taxes? Instead, you keep on putting one foot in front of the other.

A dire situation.

You look up though and see the marathon leader. You consider your situation. You’re a 36-year-old substitute teacher. You coach cross country at a high school in your spare time. You’re comfortably in second place. It hits you that second place sounds fine. Better than fine. You could ease up and finish the final mile or so strong and your race would be an amazing achievement. Everyone would consider it a success.

I admit these are all thoughts that would be running through my head. For American long distance runner Nathan Martin though good enough wasn’t good enough.

Martin had other ideas. Last week, Martin pulled off one of the most dramatic finishes in marathon history to win the 2026 LA Marathon by defeating Kenya’s Michael Kimani Kamau by 0.01 seconds. Kamau led much of the race but stumbled during the homestretch and Martin surged past him to claim the victory.

The sky’s the limit

Martin told the media that “Around mile five, I just kind of took off, and nobody went with me. So I said, ‘hey, I have to push, I have to fight.’ I wasn’t thinking at that point about winning. It was just making sure I gave the effort I have, and around a mile to go was when I saw I had a chance.”

He saw the pace car and the lead runner and told himself that he would see what happened. “And then 800 to go, I’m like, ‘All right, I have to go for it, I have to at least try,’ and things kind of worked out.” Martin received help when Kamau briefly started to go in the wrong direction at the 200 meter mark. Onlookers waved to Kamau, and he was able to right himself. But it was Martin’s tenacity that ultimately turned the race in his favor.

Going the extra mile!

I’ll remember Martin’s win for a long time. I’ll forget where the race took place. I’ll forget his race time. But I’ll long remember his effort.

When TV camera’s first pan out from shots of Kamau approaching the last half mile or so of the race, you can’t even see Martin. He’s not even in the picture. Life is kind of like that for all of us. It has a way of challenging us. How many times do we take the safe route? How often do we pull-up or settle instead of pushing the limits? We take the easier way out instead of risking failure.

Oh there are millions of reasons for our decision. We don’t want to look silly to others. We don’t want to end up with egg on our face. We want to end on a high note. We chose the solid hand. But, Martin gave his all when he surely thought he didn’t have anymore to give. Yes, we may fail. But we never know, we could win too. We never know unless we try.

Yes, let’s repeat that, we may win.

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“There is no passion to be found playing small—in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” —Nelson Mandela

“The day you settle for less is the day you will get less.” —Iman

“Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving, we get stronger and more resilient.” —Steve Maraboli

“Hope begins in the dark. The stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don’t give up.” —Anne Lamott

“When you’re at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on.” —Theodore Roosevelt

“There is nothing wrong with second place. Your best effort is all that anyone’s asking for. And if you give your best and you come in second, you come in third, you come in last, it’s not about winning or losing. It’s about giving it everything you’ve got.” ―Brennan Lee Mulligan

“Success is not measured by what you accomplish but by the opposition you have encountered and the courage with which you have maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds.” ―Orison Swett Marden

“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” ―Maya Angelou

“When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.” ―Helen Keller

“I think I can, I think I can, I think I can,” The American folktale, The Little Engine That Could.