You can learn a lot from the back of the pack
By Jeremy Gulley
I knew going into the Kansas City Marathon Saturday that things were going to get tough. I hurt my knee pretty severely a few months ago, and that injury put a halt on my marathon training. I knew that the lack of preparation and possible aggrevation of the injury might make the 26.2 miles I planned to run seem like 262 instead.
But I chose to run. My wife and I waited at the starting line together, we began the race together, and just like all of our training runs, we encouraged and motivated each other through the first exhilerating 16 miles.
Then I felt it.
My knee was not cooperating. I struggled for about a half of a mile, and then I made one of the toughest decisions I’ve ever made: I asked her to continue without me. She hesitated, not wanting to leave me in pain, but when I pleaded with her to show how strong she had become through her dedication and hard work, she went on (and finished 5 minutes under her best time).
When she left, I had a decision to make. Should I quit or should I keep going, knowing that the next 10 miles were going to be slow, painful, and seemingly endless. I couldn’t run, only hobble, but when I hobbled I didn’t hurt. So I kept going
Then I met Judy, who was having issues with her ankle and could not run either. At 52, she was in her 12th marathon, and said she had never been through one as tough as this. I spent the next seven miles with Judy, mostly walking and talking about nothing in particular. Just having someone else to walk with was all I needed to keep going.
But then Judy asked me a question that made the whole experience worthwhile to me. She asked, “why are you running this race; why are you so determined to finish?”
Without hesitation I responded, “because there is no way I’m telling my kids I quit.” Then, after a pause, I said, “and because my dad fights through worse than this every day of his life. If he can keep going, so can I. Maybe this race is my way of understanding how he feels.”
I finished the race about 45 minutes later than I had planned. I finished the race in much more pain than I anticipated. But I finished the race and went to the swim meet my boys were competing in. When I got there, my older boy said he wasn’t feeling well but came because he knew my wife and I were running a marathon and if we could do it so could he. Then my younger son swam the best backstroke time he has ever earned, and said that it was because we motivated him.
That’s what I learned from being injured and being stuck in the back of the pack: in a race, just like in life, it doesn’t matter how fast we finish, or even how pretty things are when we are done. What matters is how much courage we have when we face our struggles. My motivation came from watching my dad, and my sons’ motivation came from watching me; I’ll take that over a better marathon time any day.
Short URL: http://osawatominews.com/?p=460
Posted by admin
on Oct 20 2010. Filed under Jeremy Gulley, Opinion.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
You can leave a response or trackback to this entry