[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 Running Championships Up and Down Champion. Photo: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
She may have been scared
on that start line in Paris,
nervous is likely more accurate,
as the seconds ticked down to her Olympic Marathon debut.
Uganda on the line,
the black, yellow, and red
bold repeating colors,
her flag stitched just above her heart
that she poured onto pavement
along the swanky Seine and Tuileries Garden.
Soaking it all in with a
face all business and discipline,
what got her here to this point in time,
to run for her homeland, future,
wellbeing, children and Self.
To live well, race well,
one step at a time and so she did
to the Palace of Versailles and back.
Crossed the finish in a stacked field,
her debut ranked 44th.
Cheptegei, forever in the books,
despite her body burned on purpose,
torched by the hand of another,
despite her unimaginable early passing,
Cheptegei, forever etched in magnetic history.
