Anyone running a race knows that it is as important to start quickly as it is to run fast and hard all the way through the finish line tape. Eric Liddell, the Scottish missionary to China, was knocked down in a 400-meter race shortly after the race began and by the time he regained his footing, the pack leader was more than thirty meters ahead.
Most runners would have assumed the race was lost, but not Liddell. Liddell felt that his speed was a gift given to him by God. Using that gift was part of his life purpose, so he willed himself to continue the race, catching and passing the leaders in the last twenty meters— a task that most track coaches deemed impossible. Liddell collapsed from the physical exhaustion he willed his body to endure, and it is said that it took nine months to recover from the overexertion that he willed it to endure. One could argue that he finished the race faster than he began it.
After his wins in the Olympics, Liddell went on to become a missionary to China, where he finished his earthly race as fast as he had the earlier 400-meter dash.
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