Including a 61-year-old man by the name of Cliff Young, and his racing attire consisted of overalls, work boots, and galoshes over his work boots.
Initially, he was not allowed to register for the race, so he explained himself to the officials. Throughout his life, he ran his 2000-acre family farm with thousands of sheep, and the method that he used to round up his sheep was his own two feet, running throughout the acreage and herding them himself. For years, his family was too poor to afford anything mobile such as a horse or pickup, so he would go about the task by foot, sometimes for two or three days at a time, and this continued on well into adulthood.
The officials relented, allowed him to register, and soon it was time for the start of the race.
The gun went off and the runners bolted from the starting line. Cliff was left in the dust, but he trotted on in his overalls and boots, in a "dum-de-dum" kind of way, while keeping on pace and not worrying about his position.
By the fifth day of the race, he had caught the other runners, passed them up, and eventually won the race, a few hours ahead of the second place finisher.
The key to winning was what Cliff didn't know. He didn't know that he was supposed to stop and sleep for the night. While the others slept, he kept trotting on and on…shuffling along…dum-de-dum...until the race was over.
He became a national hero in Australia and even had an ultra-marathon race named after him.
What was the key to his success? In addition to his determination, persistence, perseverance, and tenacity, maybe a little bit of a "dum-de"dum" attitude helped too, to keep him from worrying about where he was in relation to his goal or the others around him.
By keeping his eye on the goal and not stopping in spite of the difficulties or obstacles, his goal was achieved!
Go out and make it a great day!
John
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