Cliff Young, a 61-year-old farmer and rancher, walked up to the registration table of the 1983 Sydney-to-Melbourne race in Australia and took his number.
He then joined world-class athletes half his age, dressed in specialized athletic gear and shoes, at the starting line of the 875-kilometer (about 543.6 miles) endurance race — considered the world's toughest and longest ultra marathon. Cliff was wearing overalls and work boots.
The media immediately began asking questions and Cliff told his story. He came from a large ranch outside of Melbourne. He thought he could run the race because, since his youth, he had needed to run for two to three days straight rounding up sheep before and during storms.
No one believed Cliff could finish the taxing race; many feared he would die trying.
Not only had he not trained for the race, but also he didn't run correctly, instead moving with an odd shuffle. Further, Cliff insisted on running the race without sleep. He pressed forward as the other athletes stopped every 18 hours for a 6-hour nap.
His sheer tenacity paid off.
Although he ran slower than any of the other athletes and trailed most the race, Cliff eventually gained the lead and won. He set a new course record (www.elitefeet.com/the-legend-of-cliff-young).
President Thomas S. Monson has told each of us that we are runners in the race of life. And he promised, that like Cliff, we all have the potential to win our race.
"Comforting is the fact that there are many runners," he said. "Reassuring is the knowledge that our Eternal Scorekeeper is understanding. Challenging is the truth that each must run. But you and I do not run alone. That vast audience of family, friends and leaders will cheer our courage, will applaud our determination as we rise from our stumblings and pursue our goal. The race of life is not for sprinters running on a level track. The course is marked by pitfalls and checkered with obstacles. ... Let us shed any thought of failure. Let us discard any habit that may hinder. Let us seek; let us obtain the prize prepared for all, even exaltation in the celestial kingdom of God ("Happiness — The Universal Quest," Ensign, October 1993).
Like us, Cliff Young had a sure knowledge that he could finish the race before he ever started. He told reporters that he just pretended he was searching for sheep and trying to outrun a storm. Until he was awarded the $10,000 winner's payoff, he wasn't even aware that the race had a prize.
The Apostle Paul counseled all to run the race of life with the end result in mind. "Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain" (1 Corinthians 9:24).
The problem, however, is that running and life are hard.
In 1989, President Monson said Church members can learn great lessons from the lives of those who have finished the race of life and claimed the prize.
Job, said President Monson, was perfect and upright and one who feared God and eschewed evil.
"Pious in his conduct, prosperous in his fortune, Job was to face a test that would tempt any man. Shorn of his possessions, scorned by his friends, afflicted by his suffering, even tempted by his wife to blame God, Job was to declare from the depths of his noble soul: 'Behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high' (Job 16:19). ... Job did not falter. Job became a finisher," he said.
Paul was an example of one who made the transition from sinner to saint, continued President Monson.
"Though disappointment, heartache and trial were to beset him, yet Paul, at the conclusion of his ministry, could say: 'I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith' (2 Timothy 4:7). Like Job, Paul was a finisher."
And then there was Jesus — the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:1–2).
"Though Jesus was tempted by the evil one, He resisted. Though He was hated, He loved. Though He was betrayed, He triumphed. ... The magnitude of His mission is depicted in the simplicity of His words. To His Father He prayed, 'The hour is come. … I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do' " (John 17:1, 4).
President Monson said there are true marks of finishers in the race of life that we as Church members can follow:
These are the lessons Cliff Young learned that led to his success.
Today, no one questions the way he ran his race. In fact, the "Young-shuffle" has been adopted by ultra-marathon runners because it is considered more aerodynamic and expends less energy. At least three winners of the Sydney-to-Melbourne race have been known to use the 'Young-shuffle' to win the race.
Further runners have followed Cliff's example in other ways. Now, for example, almost nobody sleeps in the Sydney-to-Melbourne race. To win that race, you have to run with the tenacity of Cliff Young — all night as well as all day.
And his "tortoise and hare" feat made him so popular that the Cliff Young Australian Six-Day Race was established in 1983 in Colac, Victoria.
In essence, Cliff's race made him a national hero.
We, too, can claim our prize after enduring — with vision, effort, faith, virtue, courage and prayer — to the end of our own races.
