Axios Finish Line: The stride and joy of witnessing a marathon

You can learn a lot about the indomitable nature of the human spirit by training for and tackling a marathon.

Why it matters: It's a tremendous physical feat.

But standing at the finish line — watching thousands of people arrive after 26.2 miles of pain, doubt and persistence — might be even more gratifying, Axios' https://www.billkolebooks.com/" target="_blank">Bill Kole writes.

• I witnessed it myself this week at the atmospheric end of the Boston Marathon.

Zoom in: I've spent years chasing finish lines myself.

• A Massachusetts native, I ran track and cross country at Boston University.

  I'm a nationally certified distance running coach who has run https://www.strava.com/athletes/49244580" target="_blank">18 marathons, including three Bostons.

• In 2014, one year after https://apnews.com/hub/boston-marathon-bombing" target="_blank">bombs placed near the finish line killed three people and wounded 260 others, I https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2014/at-the-marathon-aps-bill-kole-made-lousy-time-and-great-tweets/" target="_blank">live-tweeted each mile of the race for AP. That was the last Boston Marathon I ran.

The big picture: Now, I watch.

And from the sidelines, the view is somehow bigger.

Monday's 130th edition of https://www.baa.org/races/boston-marathon/" target="_blank">America's oldest footrace was a tableau of 30,000 sweaty success stories — often further from the spotlight than the https://apnews.com/article/boston-marathon-5a1c7ad49573bf15475f3544490f79a9" target="_blank">elite runners and https://www.boston.com/sports/boston-marathon/2026/04/20/boston-marathon-2026-celebrities-finishing-race-times/" target="_blank">celebrity athletes.

• An inspiring scene I've seen at so many big-city marathons played out again in Boston: A few dozen yards from the finish, a runner's legs gave out, but two fellow competitors https://apnews.com/video/runner-collapses-near-boston-marathon-finish-line-and-two-competitors-help-him-finish-the-race-69c97260c9b3497ba4610d9e9dc57b99" target="_blank">stopped to help him the rest of the way.
• Race announcer and self-described "hype girl" https://www.instagram.com/aliontherun1/" target="_blank">Ali Feller, who's being treated for Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer, spent hours https://aliontherun.substack.com/p/shipping-down-to-boston" target="_blank">shouting out midpack runners from the footbridge above the finish line.
• Another runner — barefoot — https://www.instagram.com/reels/DVec98TCTl8/" target="_blank">trained by running on Lego bricks and stabbing his feet with a fork.

  Terrence Concannon raised $13,000 for a charity.

The bottom line: "If you're ever losing faith in humanity, go watch a marathon," coach, athlete and writer Mario Fraioli https://themorningshakeout.substack.com/p/the-morning-shakeout-issue-545" target="_blank">wrote on his blog.

Go deeper: https://www.axios.com/2024/05/08/marathon-running-training-tiktok" target="_blank">Why more people are running marathons