Long after the crowd had left and the cameras had moved, a lone runner
entered the stadium to complete the 26-mile-long marathon in the 1968
Mexico City Olympics. Injured earlier in the race during a fall, he
stumbled along, more than an hour after the others had finished. Hurling
himself to the finish line, John Stephen Akhwari of Tanzania finished
dead last. But before you judge him as a loser, take careful heed of the
words he uttered when asked why he did not quit earlier when he had been
injured:

"My country did not send me 7,000 miles to start the race. They sent
me 7,000 miles to finish it."