Race

Feelings of competitiveness, questions of capability, worthiness, success and failure, or fear of losing or being inferior. It can also show your passage through life, your participation in the human race, and how you feel you have performed. What you do in the race, how you feel, may show what you put into your life and creativity.

Racing car or bike: Competitive drive; sexual energy; daring.

Running the race: Exerting yourself; expressing yourself; the struggle or contest of life; participating or being involved; the course of your life.

The finishing line: Your goal, or a goal you are aiming for or have reached, perhaps like a point in your life. Achievement of something in life, for instance achieving confidence; the end of life.

Marathon: The marathon depicts our participation in life. In it we are part of a ‘race’ – the human race. The imagery of the marathon is wonderful in depicting this. In it is all manner of human expression. Some participate out of competition. They want to struggle to achieve, to break barriers. Others are there almost crawling on hands and knees. They stay the course despite their condition. Determination, anger, fury, show on their faces. Some are participating for the sheer fun of it, in funny costumes, seeing the comedy of life. Others are putting in this enormous human effort for others – to collect funds for charity. Still others just love being with the crowd, meeting, mating, communicating. Apart from the various ways of participating by running, the crowd of onlookers are also a vital part of it; as are the recorders, the police, the helpers by the wayside, the officials who organise behind the scenes. The race is all of these in its totality. This is life.

Below is an example of the meaning of marathon.

Example: My husband has a gamy – crippled, damaged – leg in real life. In his dream though he is running in the London Marathon. He is running along with everyone doing okay. He sees the finishing line and all his family are there cheering him on. Then he crosses the finishing line and we all rush forward to hug him. We are all happy except for his son in law who is crying. He keeps wondering why his son-in-law is crying. Edna. LBC.

So the dreamer sees himself as a part of all this. He has two good legs because he feels his life has been full and adequate despite the condition of his body. He doesn’t feel crippled. At the end, the finishing line, death, he realises he has developed bonds of love with his family that will go with him over the boundary line when his life is finished. But there is pain too as his son-in-law cries. This is most likely due to the real sense of death and the ending of all the experience of the ‘race’, all the togetherness and loss of what he has been and done as a young man.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Do I feel that I am part of the human race?

Do I question my worthiness as a person, or fear of being inferior?

Does this indicate my progress through life and how I rate myself against others?

What part did I play in the dream – participant, watcher, helper, or official?

If I was competing who or what was I competing against?

Do I have to win or do I not mind losing but just being a participant?

See YES – You Can Dream a New Life – Features Found on Site – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams