MY TESTIMONY ABOUT THE 21.1KM WALLY HAYWARD RACE ON 1 MAY 2026
Sakkie Parsons
I would gladly like to share my experiences and thoughts with you about this special race, and I am also attaching a photo of my wonderful guide, Marix, and myself — after many kilometers together on the route.
Like all my Wally races over the years, it was a wonderful experience and, because I am blind, also quite an adventure on 1 May 2026, the day after my 79th birthday.
Now I first need to explain something –
By far the most difficult part of the race for my guide, as I have experienced it over the years, is the start with thousands of people who all have only one thought — to run and get the kilometers behind them — and then the worst thing for my guide and me is when we are running comfortably at a rhythm and pace that suit us both, and someone comes from behind, passes me, and immediately cuts in front of me, causing me to run into him/her and sometimes fall very hard.”
This time it happened just after the 16-kilometre mark, and we were wonderfully busy continuing in our comfortable rhythm and pace with nobody near us. Or so we thought.
Then someone came past on my left-hand side and immediately cut in front of me again, and I bumped into him/her, lost my balance, and fell hard, with my guide falling on top of me.
It was a hard fall for me because, remember, we already had 16 kilometers behind us, and you no longer really have the strength to handle such an incident as well.
However, it happened like lightning. I do not know where they came from, but suddenly there were about five or six other participants around us, helping us to our feet and staying with us to see if we were alright.
I now want to share with you what that one athlete who cut in front of me taught me again — and what the other five or six athletes who, as it were, competed to help us, also taught me again:
I am not talking now about people who say they are Christians but are not really so – simply because they have never truly accepted Jesus as their Redeemer and Saviour — and unfortunately, in the times in which we live, that is the largest group of people who call themselves Christians.
I first want to share with you about Christians who truly believe and confess that they are Christians, just as that athlete who immediately cut in front of me truly was an athlete; otherwise he/she would not have been in a 21.1-kilometre race, on the way to 17 kilometers out of 21.1, and he/she also knew that it is not pleasant when you are enjoying your rhythm and pace in a race and someone cuts directly in front of you.
Yes, I know that life these days is almost a struggle for survival for all of us, and life at the moment is incredibly fast, and there are so many things that continually demand our attention, that I want to ask that you, together with me, will especially pay attention in your life that satan does not trap you in that snare of selfishness, and that we then become an insult to precisely what Jesus stands for.
That athlete was, because of the pressure under which he/she was at that moment in his/her life, completely selfish and self-centered.
Selfishness and self-centeredness are things that simply should not be found in a true child of our Lord.
We read the following, and I share only a few of the many examples I could have used with you:
PHILIPPIANS 2:3–8
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.
4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. (The athlete who cut in front of me only needed to keep the same line for a few more steps but did not want to.)
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; (because He is God)
7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. (from God Almighty to a human being, yes, a servant) by taking the very nature of a servant and being made in human likeness;
8 and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself (even further) by becoming obedient (as atonement for our sin) unto death — even death on a cross!
JAMES 3:13–17
13 Who is wise and understanding among you? (Let people see Jesus in and through you.) Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.
14 But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, (work on not making a mockery of what Jesus taught and did) do not boast about it or deny the truth.
15 Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic;
16 for where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is (here follows what we should strive for in our relationships with the people around us) first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.
Now I want to share with you what happened when we fell:
As I mentioned —
Immediately, I do not know where they came from, because a few seconds earlier it had been completely quiet around us except for the sound of our footsteps and the person passing me whom I heard — and suddenly there were five, six, or perhaps even more people and hands helping us up.
Now you must understand something about those people who helped us –
Every moment they spent helping us was time they lost from what their finishing time would be when they crossed the line — and they only had a certain amount of time to qualify for their medals. If they crossed the line after the cut-off time, then in reality they sacrificed a lot of money and months of training to help two people who had fallen. But they were what I would call; true road athletes — and our Lord used them to remind me again of what He says in His Word about His true followers, how He sees us, and what He expects from us.
Again, I could have used many examples, but I will limit myself to the following:
MATTHEW 25:34–40
34 Then the King will say to those on His right: Come, you who are blessed by My Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
35 For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger and you invited Me in;
36 I needed clothes and you clothed Me; I was sick and you looked after Me; I was in prison and you came to visit Me.
37 Then the righteous will answer Him: Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink?
38 And when did we see You a stranger and take You in, or needing clothes and clothe You?
39 And when did we see You sick or in prison and go to visit You?
40 And the King will answer them: Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of Mine, you did for Me.
I also just want to mention that because of those people’s help, my guide and I were also able to cross the finish line within the cut-off time and receive our medals.
Would you not today once again make a fresh decision — and perhaps you already live this way — but I still ask whether you would not today once again make this decision:
“I do not want to make a mockery of what Jesus teaches me through His Word and what He signed with His blood on Golgotha.
From today onward I will do what He asks and expects of me in His Word — and in doing so help make the world, at least around me, a better place.”
GALATIANS 6:2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
I close by once again reminding you how the Love-law of Christ reads and how we fulfil that law:
MATTHEW 22:36–40
36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “ (this is a command, not an option) Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
39 And the second is like it: (it is not subordinate to the first but is only called second because you cannot call both first) You must (this is a command, not an option) love your neighbour as yourself.
40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (In other words — it does not matter what else you can think of; it is subordinate to these two.)
We can and must fulfil this Law of Love of Christ, and our Lord also tells us exactly in His Word how we should do it:
ROMANS 13:8–10
8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves another has fulfilled the law.
9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbour as yourself.”
10 Love does no harm to a neighbour. Therefore love is the fulfilment of the law.
So, I simply remind you again of what you have already read:
GALATIANS 6:2
Carry one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. (Which you again read today in Matthew 22:36–40.)
Sakkie