[Editor’s Note: This poem, written by Angie Funtanilla, is dedicated to 2024 Olympian, and 2022 World Mountain Running Up and Down champion, Rebecca Cheptegei of Uganda, who recently lost her life in a violent assault at her home in Kenya. All at iRunFar would like to offer our deepest sympathy to Rebecca’s family and loved ones. May she rest in peace.]
Rebecca Cheptegei, 2022 World Mountain Operating Championships Up and Down Champion. Photograph: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
She might have been scaredon that begin line in Paris,
nervous is probably going extra correct,because the seconds ticked all the way down to her Olympic Marathon debut.
Uganda on the road,the black, yellow, and crimson
daring repeating colours,her flag stitched simply above her coronary heart
that she poured onto pavementalong the swanky Seine and Tuileries Backyard.
Soaking all of it in with aface all enterprise and self-discipline,
what received her right here to this cut-off date,to run for her homeland, future,
wellbeing, youngsters and Self.To dwell properly, race properly,
one step at a time and so she didto the Palace of Versailles and again.
Crossed the end in a stacked area,her debut ranked forty fourth.
Cheptegei, endlessly within the books,
regardless of her physique burned on objective,torched by the hand of one other,
regardless of her unimaginable early passing,
Cheptegei, endlessly etched in magnetic historical past.
