Watch and learn
A photo essay from the 2024 Brighton Marathon on why it pays for all of us to take our turn as the spectator.
This is a rallying cry to runners. To runners who are training for a race, to runners who are just keeping things ticking over. To runners who are just starting out, or working their way up the ladder on Couch To 5k. To runners who are injured and daydreaming about getting back out there on the roads or trails. To those who don’t run, but have a partner who does. To those whose brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, uncles, aunties, and friends run. To those who wouldn’t even consider running for a bus. This is your call, this is your sign. The next time you get the chance: go and watch a marathon.
They say that watching a marathon will restore your faith in humanity. Whoever they are, they have clearly watched a fair few in their time. Underneath all the things that may erode that faith – the people who don’t hold doors open, the litter carelessly strewn across green spaces, the horns blaring in anger and frustration – you will soon see that deep down almost everyone has some good in them. Marathon day draws it out like sunlight unfurling the petals of a flower.
Everyone knows that running a marathon is hard, but to see it up close and personal is the best way to truly understand that. Once you’ve seen the tears in a runner’s eyes as they strain every sinew for their own personal cause, a door opens in your soul that can never be fully closed again.
You see, everyone who makes it to the start line of a marathon has done things the hard way. There’s no shortcut or easy route to being a competitor in this race. Just to be lining up in the gaggle of shivering limbs and nervous tension in the starting pens, you simply must have put the work in.
Months of beating your body to its limits and stressing about how and when to fit the runs into your busy life are just part of the story. To prepare for a marathon is to adopt a different mindset. A mindset that knows the true path to success lies in consistency, in discipline, in summoning motivation up from a well that looks dry to all who gaze into its dark depths. Those who do it have found the water. They have survived, and they will use these lessons in the marathon.
It won’t all go to plan for these runners, marathons rarely do. There will be moments when it seems as though the weight of the world is crushing them under its heel – just another wannabe marathoner who thought they could cut it. This is when the human spirit shines through.
As an onlooker, whether you’ve run 10 marathons or never set foot in sneakers, you know when runners are in this pain cave. Your empathy knows when a fellow human needs help. And the help pours out of you whether you like it or not. You’ll shout, you’ll clap, you’ll cheer. You’ll check on those who are crumpled on the side of the road, hanging for dear life to the race that is trying to chew them up and spit them out. You’ll pick them up, you’ll dust them off, you may offer a word of support or even a Jelly Baby. You’ll get them back on their road to victory. And you’ll do it for them, not for yourself.
People around you will burst into life as their person approaches. The one they have supported through the struggle of preparing for this ultimate test, the one they are willing so hard to see it through to the end. Through tears and smiles and screams and shouts you will hear snippets that bring a lump to the throat.
“We’re so proud of you,”
“You’re doing so well,”
“This is so fucking hard,”
“Keep going, we love you,”
And they will keep going. They will never stop. Because the determination of marathon runners is the very essence of knowing that human beings can do hard things. We can triumph over adversity, no matter how hard it gets.
And then you’ll see the finishers. Waddling, hobbling. They have never known pain like it, but they have also never known a day like it. A day when their months-long dream was finally achieved. A day when it felt like the whole world was on their side, willing them to do it. It was lonely at times, it was bleak, and it was a fate seemingly not yet decided. But with the arms of their loved ones around them, the crunching of foil blankets, and the clanking of shiny medals, they know deep down that they will never beat this feeling. And you may never feel so much adoration for strangers like this ever again either.
Running a marathon will change you. But what nobody ever tells you is that watching one will too. Take your turn as a spectator and be swept along as the hazy monochrome of everyday existence explodes into full, glorious, and vibrant colour. The human race is wonderful, and there aren’t too many ways left to help you remember that.
All photos © David Guest.