Who Are the Winners??

Winners and Losers - How Can We Separate the Sheep from the Goats?

If you kept in touch with the results of the 2019 New York Marathon you know that there were 53,508 – 30,794 men and 22,714 women – who ran the 26+miles. The first man to reach the finish line was Geoffrey Kamworor of Kenya in 2:08:13 who nosed out Albert Korir, also of Kenya in 2:08:36. Joyciline Jepkosgei was the first woman finisher in 2.22:38 followed by Mary Keitany of Kenya in 2.23.32.

The stories in the television coverage focused on these four and numerous others who had finished. There also was coverage of elderly persons, a heart attack survivor, amputees, wheelchair contestants, and some first timers.

With that information, here are some questions for you to consider:

• Were Joyciline Jepkosgei and Geoffrey Kamworor the only winners and the other 53,506 runners were losers?

• Was Geoffrey Kamworor the only winner?

• Were the many runners who met their goals of time or placement losers or were they winners?

• Were the many finishers who set their new (PR) personal records winners?

• Were the heart attack survivor, the amputee, and the first timer winners?

• Was Daniel Romanchuk of the USA, who led the men’s wheelchair group a winner? How about Marcel Hug of Switzerland who came in .01 second behind him?

• The same questions can be asked about Manuela Schar of Switzerland and Tatyana McFadden of the USA who came in first and second in the women’s wheelchair group.

• And there are the same questions about the elderly and amputee participants.

Let’s take this in a broader view. Who determines whether you are a winner or a loser? Can you decide if someone else is a winner or a loser? How much do we allow others to judge whether we are successful and how much judging of others do we do? And then the last biggest question, after you decide who the losers are; what do you do with them?