Inspiration comes at the most unlikely times



This week my training blog for Ragnar is about motivation and excuses. For those of you who do not know what Ragnar is, it is a team relay race that happens worldwide throughout the year and was started right here in Utah. This year I am runner 11 on my team for the Wasatch Back Ragnar which covers a total of 218 miles of mountainous terrain through the Rocky Mountains. The Ragnar has been on my bucket list for quite some time and the opportunity arose so I grasped it when I could.

The reason my blog is on motivation and excuses is because in all honesty I am not a runner. I have always tried to tell myself I am because I want to be. I played soccer for 15 years, ran track in high school and ran leisurely on occasion when I was younger for cardio but never a “Real Runner” like some of the people I know. The problem here is when people think you are in good shape they will automatically assume you can do anything athletic; including run a 7.5 mile leg of a race at 5K to 8K feet above sea level on a 10-15% incline.

This past Monday morning I was supposed to get up and do one of my long run days trying to build up to doing 20 miles over a 24 hour period. The problem was I had done a long run Thursday and Friday the previous week, a short run Saturday plus several hours of hiking and had gone mountain biking and hiking again Sunday, so Monday I woke up feeling very sorry for myself and sore and tired, so I decided not to go. Usually when I run I jog down the mountain however many miles I decide I need to go and then jog back up since I live at the peak and the incline is anywhere from 10% to 15% for majority. Great training strategy huh? J

I just so happened that in this particular day that I decided that I was not able to go for my run and wanted to be lazy that I had an 8am chiropractic appointment. Well of course living at the top of the mountain I had to drive down and drive back up. I had a very eye-opening experience that day on my way back up. There is a ravine that we have to drive around going up and down to the valley which has the steepest grade percentage of the run and is extremely difficult for most people to walk let alone run and as I was driving back up the mountain I saw a man running this section of the mountain. Normally this is not that big of a deal, so he got up to run when I didn’t right? Wrong… This man wasn’t just any man, he happened to be missing one leg. Now I didn’t know the man and I don’t know his story but that is an impressive feet (no pun intended) if you ask me.

That day I learned something new that I have learned before but was very real at least in that moment. If you don’t do it someone will, there will always be someone worse off then you saying they can do it when you say you can’t and there will always be potential for something to hold you back. Ill bet there was a day in the beginning that, that man thought this was an impossible task but he was going to prove he could do it against the odds. He is a true inspiration and a true example of how the rest of us should live our lives, one step at a time always accomplishing the impossible. Feeling re-energized I went for a run that night. I ran 6 miles, farther then I had run in over 4 years or even longer. I improved my time as well. I did something even greater Monday this week though… I made a decision to not slack off, to never give myself a reason to be ashamed that I did not try my best.