Despair not y'all, Cheptegei got this!

Joshua Cheptegei was visibly battered towards and at the finish line in Valencia on Sunday. 

The much needed embrace from a fellow runner after an extremely exhausting 42kms was just what the 27-year-old needed at that moment. 

I could not help but briefly flash back to the 2017 events at Kololo that physically destroyed a then budding superstar.

But Cheptegei's well-demonstrated bounce-back-ability quickly brought me back to the now. The next. 

He recovered from the ill-planned strategy in 2017 at Kololo, where he had chewed on more than he could swallow, to break world records, win Worlds and Olympic golds in his wake. 

And at the time of coming into the Valencia event for his very first marathon at a course he broke world records on track, Cheptegei had enough evidence to give this a good go. 

As a matter of fact, he was backed to possibly win this by his idol, Kenyan legend Eliud Kipchoge, because of Cheptegei's impressive track record and experience in running. 

And give it a go he did, running a controlled first half (21kms) - surrounded by a cast of seasoned elite marathon runners - in one hour and 35 seconds. 

But the second half soon told a story, a story of who really owns what in running. 

Of course long distance great, 41-year-old Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele, found no trouble transitioning from 5,000m and 10,000m to long distance running as he broke the course record to win his debut Paris Marathon in 2014. 

"All of us are built differently," Cheptegei cautioned ahead of his Sunday debut, "For me, it is important to just enjoy the race and try to see what happens after 35 kilometres.

"What will make a perfect race for me in Valencia is to finish the race. That would be an achievement for me. The best for me would be seeing myself on the podium."

He accomplished the first by finishing. The podium will be for another day.  

A 37th place finish is, of course, quite some distance from the podium, but Cheptegei will look at his debut time of 2:08:59 in Valencia and know that with a few more dry runs, he will do better in the near future.  

Actually, that a clearly battered Cheptegei carried on - with only willpower willing him on to the finish line - was victory for the human spirit of resilience in itself.

And like he did after Kololo, Cheptegei can and will come back stronger, and his fellow runners will know that. 

And, come to think of it, a debut marathon in 2:08:59 is far from tragic. 

But because Cheptegei’s own standards have been set so high a lot is expected from him, even in things he is doing for the first time.

Fortunately, Uganda’s greatest athlete of all time has some months to recover and prepare well for his last dance in 5,000m and 10,000m at the Paris 2024 Olympics before he can return to take on the road in full force - again.