Running Motivation (Read 618 times)

I was on the subway with my fiance last night, reading the newest Runner's World magazine. It was the article about the NYFD and former Iron Man who was hit by a bus couple of years ago, and basically destroyed. The article was about his road to recovery and in running the NYC marathon after being completely re-built. Amazing story and I suggest anyone looking for motivation should read it. Anyway, she decided that if he could do it, there's no reason she can't train for the marathon. I told her if she ran 2010 I'd run it at her pace (which is about half my pace, but whatever). It will be AWESOME. I've always wanted to get her to run the marathon, I got he to run the Brooklyn half a couple of years ago and she broke her foot on mile 11 so it was not looking good (she did finish it btw). Anyway, I'm super excited. This year we're gonna make sure she runs enough qualifying races to get guaranteed entry in 2010. We'll work on her base mileage and move her up to some comfortable double digit runs but take it very easy. We have a lot of time. I'm in for 2009, so I'll run that one for speed, and 2010 will be with my fiance, who at that point will be my wife, which is actually really weird to think about. Wish us luck!

Hi Dave, My husband worked with him, knows him personally. It is an amazing story. I've never seen someone triumph after giving up so much, almost dying. Congrats on your fiance's new motivation! Sometimes a story like that is exactly what you need to get out there and push yourself! Ginna

You know the guy! Man, I'm completely sucker for something like this... I cry watching "Rudy" or "Invincible"... Most people just thing it's a story or a movie; on the contrary, there are so many "heroes" among us. There was a guy by the name of Murray Halberg in New Zealand. He was a fairly good athlete when he was a young kid but when he was 17, he had an accident during a rugby game. He broke his shoulder and chopped off all the nerves and blood vessels. Blood was leaking around his heart and the doctors would have to operate an open heart surgery (well, I guess it's not technically "open heart" because they didn't quite "open" his heart but they had to open his rib cage to get to his heart) to remove all the clotting blood. Doctors didn't think he would live. His arm, left arm by the way, was pretty much useless and asked his parents whether to amputate it or not. His parents, not thinking he would live, said there's no use for that (so they could burry his body as a whole). Of course, he survived. He wasborn left handed so he had to re-learn everything including writing his own name, etc. He couldn't use a knife and a fork so his friend would often have to cut up food for him. Good think he wasn't a Japanese...or Chinese; re-learning to use chopsticks can be a bitch! He joined a group of runners in his neighborhood and started to run...to run a lot...upward of 100 miles a week. Ten years later when he was 27 years old, he won the gold medal in 5000m in the Olymipcs and set several world records in 2 and 3 miles. His left arm just sort of hang. One of the most inspiring stories I know.