The Courage to Start

 I took great pride in being an athlete, in both high school and college. But, "pride comes before a fall". And after college my body shut down. It took a year for it to completely break, and when it did, I was down for the count. Literally. I had to sit down on the stairs on the way to my 3rd grade classroom. The next morning, I woke up with swollen eyes. It took over a year to recover from the mono, which turned into Epstein Barr.

The following year, I started walking. Up the street and down the street. The body that had once played 5 hours of tennis a day was a distant memory. Gradually, the walks got longer. They became runs. Short runs. Then, a friend from work asked me to run a 5K with her. I was scared. In college I'd mused over running a marathon and now I worried about completing 3.1 miles.

I decided I should learn a few things about running. For $20.00 a year, I purchased 12 months of valuable running advice in the form of Runner's World magazine. My favorite articles were by John "The Penguin" Bingham. It was comforting to know there was someone out there who was also overcoming a fair share of bodily setbacks and health demons.

Gradually, the 5Ks became more frequent and turned into 10Ks. I signed up for my first half marathon in 1997.  It took 2:20 minutes, but I did it! I tried to train for a few marathons, but my body rebelled and my compromised immune system reminded my fatigued self that Epstein Barr's symptoms were in remission, but not gone forever.

Still, I read RW cover to cover, laughing and musing at John Bingham's "Penguin Chronicles". In 2000, I ran my first marathon...and continued training for more--running mile after mile, through tears, through pain, building character, friendships, confidence and strength.  

I've run alongside heroic people, facing divorces, cancer, trauma, and death. Many times, we set PRs, but more often, we waddled like penguins--pushing baby joggers, crowding streets, towing dogs, laughing, crying, and panting along. John Bingham would have fit right in.

Several years ago, I bought one of his books, The Courage to Start, to read on vacation. I laughed out loud and also teared up as I poured through his story. His running story, in many ways was my running story, and the story of so many others, who share our trails and roads. In one way or another, we are all overcoming something, facing demons, and searching for the best in ourselves.

I hope you will find his book, (or something similar that suits you better) and enjoy it--in your own way. I hope you will find the best in yourself and continue logging many more miles and memories.

As John Bingham would say, "Waddle On Friends"

 “The miracle isn’t that I finished. It’s that I had the courage to start.”