Earlier in the fall, the Woodies RV Marathon brought me into Red Deer to speak at their carbo gala. I love public speaking, so I usually dive at these opportunities to tell my stories and yak for a while with a microphone in my face. While I am essentially brought in to inspire the runners to go out and run well the next morning, I often find that I leave the race being the one that is inspired.
This was certainly the case in Red Deer. I had the pleasure of meeting Bill Nelson, a local legend and overall great guy. He was on a quest to run 100 marathons, when he was diagnosed at age 60 with Parkinson's Disease. The hitch was that he still had 35 marathons to go to get his goal and the disease was advancing quickly.
I was deeply struck by how optimistic he is and how he persevered through what is nothing short of a very debilitating ailment. I left thinking of how if Bill could muster the strength to run his last 35 marathons, then surely I could find the fortitude to overcome a 2 year injury. There are days when my Achilles is sore and swollen (although fewer now than before), and I recall Bill's still burning drive to get out running. I find people like Bill or the women who have dropped huge amounts of weight to run their first marathon incredibly inspiring. I always looked like a distance runner, and even during my injury, I still looked like I was a runner. I have had it pretty easy compared to a guy like Bill.
The goal really had been to get back to running. And now, I am back. I can do runs up to 80 minutes and have started doing some intervals. The other night I got in my first sub 3 minute km in over 2 years. I even did a session of repeat miles (averaging slower than my best marathon pace I might add...haha). But, I am having fun with it.
A few weeks ago, my seven year old son, John, started a conversation that went something like this:
John: Dad, are you going to start running?
Me: Well, John, I am doing some running right now. I am slowly getting back at things.
John: No...I mean racing.
Me: Would you like me to start racing again? [I figured that my racing was more of an inconvenience on the family]
John: Yes!!
As I started to think about this later, it occurred to me that John would not remember seeing me run. I mean most of my racing was either before he was born, when he was too young to remember, or when I was in another city. He would have heard a lot about my running, but wouldn't be able to have any memories of it of his own. When I retired from open running (RVM 2004), he would have just turned 2.
So, I am now inspired to race for John. I am training for some races in the fall were he can see his ol' man run. I guess you could say that I am inspired to give my son a memory of his dad racing.
