What a thrill last night to watch our own Ryan Hall run the Olympic Marathon in Beijing. Seeing him line up in China with the fastest marathoners in the world gave me chills. Ryan was considered a medal contender and the build-up, especially here in his hometown of Big Bear, was huge. While Ryan’s 10th place finish means he won’t be returning home with any extra hardware, his performance still is exceptional and points to an increasingly bright future. Remember, Ryan is only 25, his first Olympics was only his 4th marathon, and yet he already ranks among the running world’s elite.

It sure is nice when things go perfectly, and admittedly it would have been incredible last night if Ryan Hall had medalled in the Beijing Marathon. But in my experience, a perfect performance can be hard to come by, and the times that things go perfectly are in fact rare. And that is why they are so special. If perfect was commonplace, no one would care. Perfect, again? Ho, hum.

The thing about Ryan that resonated most with me from the very beginning was they way he dealt with challenges, setbacks and disappointment. It’s easy when things go well. It’s when things are tough that we really discover who we are and what we are made of. To me, it’s not Ryan’s accomplishments that are most impressive (even though they are pretty impressive), it’s what he endured on the way to those accomplishments that are most inspiring. I am curious to see what Ryan does with this latest gift of 10th place.

Last week at Big Bear High School‘s Back To School Night, I was in my daughter’s AP US History classroom with her teacher, Mr. Hahn. He had a quote up on the wall that seems especially appropriate:

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal, it is the courage to go on that counts.”

Amen. Keep Running, Ryan.