Is it easy to win when you are the only runner in the race?

Hebrews 12:1-2

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

All through Secondary school and into University I was part of the Track and Field team in the spring. My race was the 2 mile. (Remember this was a long time ago and in the US so kilometres weren't invented there yet.) Anyway, I was a space-filler on the team. The coach didn't quite know what to do with me so the 2 mile seemed a good fit. I could run distances well, the problem was I just wasn't fast enough even for that race. So meet after meet I would line up with the other runners and eventually finish the race somewhere in the middle of the pack. Once in awhile I might score a point or two for the team, but normally...well.  So comes the Conference track meet in my 1st year of University and it was decreed that every athlete could only enter 2 events. This was done so that a school had to rely on a team and not just one superstar. This particularly year there were some very good 1 and 2 mile runners in our conference which meant that I regularly finished in the bottom half of the pack. Well imagine my surprise when they called the 2 mile race at the conference meet and I was the only runner to show up at the start line. All the other schools had put their runners into the 1 mile race and other events. The officials had to run the race because they had an entrant...me.  I had to run the race in its entirety to score the points for our team. So I lined up. They fired the starting pistol. I was off.  8 long laps around the track in a big stadium with a grandstand full of people and the infield filled with athletes from 8 Universities all watching the one lone runner...me...run the distance.  It started to be entertaining as every time I passed the grandstands the crowd would erupt in wave of cheers and whistles. When I was running the back straight away from the crowd other athletes would come and run alongside me on the infield yelling encouragement.  When I crossed the finished line, breaking the finishing tape for the one and only time in my career, the sounds of the crowd cheering and applauding were wonderful to hear. What I also heard was the laughter. Laughter at the absurdity of it all. All the top runners had to stand by and watch while this back pack runner took out the race and the points. All that mattered to me was that I had run the race and finished. 

This is the scenario that the writer of the Hebrews has in mind in these verses. The race of faith is not a sprint race, but an endurance race. A race each of us must run by ourselves.  And yet, even while we must run our own race we are not alone for the 'great cloud of witnesses' is all around us to encourage us and cheer us on our way. Finally we must run the race to the finish and, for us, that finish is seeing Christ himself. So run your daily race of faith. Listen for the voices of encouragement from the saints on this earth and the world to come. The finish will come soon enough. In the meantime keep on running.