Each year when I read the Haftora for Parashat Lech Lecha taken from Yeshayahu 40-1, I recall a particularly moving scene from the film “Chariots of Fire,” the 1981 film that won four Academy Awards including Best Picture. The film explores aspects of the 1924 Olympics, and one of the athletes it focuses upon is Eric Liddell, a Scottish Missionary. Liddell’s qualifying heat was scheduled on a Sunday, and due to religious principle, he resisted all types of pressures to run. One of the film’s scenes is a depiction of Liddell giving the Sunday sermon at the Paris branch of the Church of Scotland while at the same time various Olympic events are being conducted ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjF59VB0h6g ) The text that he cites, which also happens to be part of the Haftora for this Parasha, could apply to the human condition in general, but has special poignancy when understood within the context of athletics:
Yeshayahu 40:28-31
28 Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, Fainteth not, neither Is weary? His Discernment Is past searching out. 29 He Giveth power to the faint; and to him that hath no might He Increaseth strength. 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall; 31 But they that wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.