In the face of adversity

I thought my workout was bad. Not a fan of anything under an 800, I was dismayed to learn that we were running 400s today. Eight 400s at mile race pace intimidated me merely because I almost always fall behind. While I can hang with faster groups for endurance work, my longer legs work against me in anything speed related. As vie said before, I simply don't know how to move my body that way. At one point during a rest period, ER even joked about my seemingly slow motion stride. I've even had a hurdler friend tell me it's entertaining to watch me "try to run fast.". That's about as insulting as you can get, but I don't hold it against him because it is so unquestionably true. So, to me, this workout was one of the worse options. After practice, however, we heard a story that stomped out any remnants of self-pity. Because she is in town this weekend, a paraolympic athlete asked to train on our track. In addition to training in close proximity, she asked to speak to our track team. A motivational speaker as well as an athlete, she had a very intriguing message. After a boating accident in her youth, her foot was amputated. Years later, she is training as a track runner and bound for London this summer. Her entire outlook was persevering and she showed no semblance of self-pity. Looking at her from the knees up as I waled into the gym, I would have had no idea she had a disability. Hearing her times (about 13 seconds in a 100 and 28 seconds in a 200) completely floored me. This woman was by no means compromised by adversity. It made me reconsider my attitude towards challenges. In comparison to my workout attitude today, her overall perspective was to look at training as an opportunity. It's easy for me to embrace this same productive mindet when I'm running "my type" of workouts (endurance oriented), but it's much more difficult to stay mentally engaged when I'm feeling inadequate in speed workouts. She, however, seemed to see the opportunity of merely being able to work out, and therefore had the drive to train at the intensity of an olympic athlete thirty hours a week. Furthermore, it reminded me what a blessing it is to have an intact body. While she was amazingly successful even in spite of her challenges, I also began contemplating how lucky I am to have my own body completely functional. Though I may joke about wanting to skip a workout or not run a race, the truth is that I love the sport. If it were ever taken away from me I would be crushed. If something were to happen to inhibit my running, I can only hope I'd be as dedicated and strong as she was and continues to be. Having her speak to us after struggling to push myself today was the perfect mental wakeup call. It's important to remember what a privilege it is to compete.