Inspiring Runner Refuses To Give Up

I was reading news online when I came across this inspiring story of a runner who refuses to give up though his body has already done so. The runner’s sheer determination to finish the race at all costs is truly a great inspiration.

Covington (La.) St. Paul’s School senior cross country star Christian Bergeron never wavered in his commitment to finishing the race for his team in the Louisiana Class 5A boys cross country championship race on Monday.

Bergeron’s body failed during the final yards of the race. The runner collapsed again and again over the final 25 yards of the race, but none of those setbacks stopped him from finishing the race.  His spirit never wavered, and the teenager eventually dragged himself across the finish line on his hands and knees to complete the final cross country race of his high school career.

As soon as Bergeron crossed the finish line, he collapsed into the arms of his older brother, Joey Bergeron, who was on hand to watch his sibling’s final race.

“I was trying to move my legs, but it just wasn’t working,” Bergeron said. “I tried standing and they just buckled underneath me, so that’s when I resorted to crawling. I don’t remember hearing anything. When I crossed the line, I saw my brother, and he picked me up and brought me to the bench.”

Bergeron’s mother, who happens to be a nurse, rushed down to the track and transported her son to a nearby hospital in a golf cart.

The race has never staffed an emergency medical technician (EMT) in past years, but the unseasonable heat and humidity — Natchitoches, La., where the race was held, had a heat index above 80 degrees on Monday — made for dangerous race conditions for teens more accustomed to racing in weather nearly 20 degrees cooler by this point in the season.

“There’s no paramedics, no ambulance, nothing,” Joey Bergeron said. “It’s hot, and kids are lying around everywhere suffering.”

The heroic of Bergeron is definitely one of the most inspiring moments of determination of the year in the sports arena.