如果没有那些过去和回忆
现在就只是要 或不要的问题了
让自己继续向前看
如果我们的人生都是一帆风顺的
又怎会有人去跑马拉松？
他们一共跑了6小时，比领先者慢了3个小时
但终点的另一头，是献给所有跑者的
不管是第一名还是最后一名
凡是越过终点的都是自己的赢家

____________________________________

The third episode of the movie describes a widow, whose husband dead within 6 months, fall in love with a young man and the effort she spares to get rid of the past life. What really attracts me is the answer to the question “why do you run?”

In the beginning of the movie, the woman runs among the noisy crowd at the starting line and the voiceover tells: (1’26’51) Until now, the women cannot satisfy herself with the reason for running 42.195Km. The episode than provides flashback to the date when the woman meets the boy in his car where she finds a bunch of withered rose and asks him why choose to run marathon? At that time, she believes only man with mental problem might do that. Later when she want to give up in the most exhausted part of the training, the man tells the woman the secret of the rose – Last Year he gave up in the mileage of 35Km because he failed to answer the question “what you are doing here” and then he locks the rose with a promise not to open the drawer until he finish the marathon this time. The boy encourage the woman: when we finish this 3-months train, we are no longer ourselves!(1’51’10)

In our lives, everyone has his “35Km” which in the movie is a metaphor for the psychological barrier of the women. If she wants to begin a new life, she must answer the question-“why are you do this?” It seems in the end of the movie, the women find her answer in the begin of the race: (2’13’09)

我的人生新阶段，就从这声枪声开始，
我不想只是跑着，而是跑出一个新的开始，
我确信，我想要我的车中充满自己的气息，
我在八世皇桥上看到日出了，如果我现在不在这里，就根本看不到了

When the woman struggles to stand up after slumps to the ground in a short faint, she sees the boy turning back from the destination to meet her. At this moment, she does not care about her mother’s attitude anymore, as the voiceover tells :(2’16’50)

如果没有那些过去和回忆
现在就只是要 或不要的问题了
让自己继续向前看
如果我们的人生都是一帆风顺的
又怎会有人去跑马拉松？
他们一共跑了6小时，比领先者慢了3个小时
但终点的另一头，是献给所有跑者的
不管是第一名还是最后一名
凡是越过终点的都是自己的赢家

Before the finishing line, the boy asks the woman that question again: how you respond the voice in “35Km”? Without answering the man directly, the woman just spares no effort to run to the end with a confident smile.

现在她很清楚，不论她回答什么，她已经不再是原来那个她了！
如今她终于明白，人生就是不断向前，
每跨越一次7步，就会是一个改变并准备迎接下一个7步

I believe everyone has the same experience when they stand on the starting line and when they arrive at “35Km” – the “why” question is always an devil accompanying us along our life journey. Whenever we want to change ourselves, we are standing at the beginning of a marathon. As I see, in fact, once we decide to have a new life, we do not have to hesitate again to become the “finisher” and the “why” question does not deserve us to answer. Only until we arrive at the destination to see the withered flower prepared by ourselves in the starting line, would we understand the meaning of this journey is the running itself.

If we really want to CHANGE ourselves and to go beyond what was established and defined, just RUN to be a Finisher

The music “Finisher” in the movie is really fantastic!

Share a quote from a speech that President Theodore Roosevelt delivered at the Sorbonne in April 1910 entitled “Citizenship in a Republic”. It reads:
　　
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”(From Jean’s “金融风暴里的“竞技者”)