JAN-B-8
MY LONG-DISTANCE RUNNING BUDDY ED AND I
EXCHANGE TALES OF HEROIC ENDURANCE
From: Glenn Geelhoed
To: Ed516p@aol.com
Date:
Subject: Re: I promised!
What a wonderful story!
The
one Olympic story that is worth every gold medal ever awarded (and if I had won
one that day, I would have taken it off and given it to him at the finish)
concerns the Marathon in
One
entrant from
He was not a "money runner" and had only a "human interest" sidebar in the Olympics hype, but he was determined. He was on high dose steroids for rejection, and as a consequence broke his demineralized hip. He had a hip replacement‑‑and he got out and ran.
The
Olympic marathon gun was fired and he was in the race. The winner crossed the line by coming around
Sagrada Familia in
But, wait! There was still one runner on the course! It was after dark, and he was painfully running up hill, but he made it to the finish line, staggering across in something around four times the winner's time. A video camera was down at the finish line and got footage of the last Olympian of the year completing his event, and a commentator thrust a microphone in the Korean's face for the standard "How do you feel now?" brilliant interview.
He was haggard and sweating despite the evening chill, but straightened up and said in very imperfect English: "My purpose was to come to compete."
That was the flame to be passed to the next generation and beyond!
I about cried. I hope that might still be me, and as I am closing in on 100 of the long runs, I may need to stagger in on one or more borrowed joints even if the kidneys are still my own‑‑but, I will have my own heroes!
OK, Joe, are you ready for our Sunday run?
GWG
>>> <Ed516p@aol.com> 01/23/04 06:13AM >>>
In
a message dated
I was passed (note, I did not say "I passed") by one of the six original "Ground Pounders who had done all 28 of the MCM's when I was doing my 20th in October. He looked back at me sporting each of my own five year patches, and he yelled "See you at the fiftieth!"
And, you know, he may
I participated in a double ironman event this past October. The youngest participant was a 24‑year old in the Air Force. For some reason, he had not slept much for the two days before the event and only arrived hours before the event started. The race starts with a 4.8 mile swim. After about an hour or so, he had to pulled from the water due to hyperthermia (may have had a leaking wetsuit I am not sure)., He was wrapped up and after several hours started to feel rejuvenated. He wanted to get back into the race. He was disqualified‑ officially, but was allowed to get on the bike course and bike with everyone else.
Well, most of us were in single shirts, maybe a vest or windbreaker for some. He was bundled up. He started the biking several hours behind everyone else with a big coat on and some kind of head warmer. He peddled all day and pretty much through the night, behind everyone else but steady. He finished the biking‑ 224 miles. I don't know when, but then he started the run but again he was hours behind everyone else.
Now it's the second day. This young man is determinedly running/walking knowing full well that he is out of the race, cannot finish within the time limit and was no longer in the race. He did not finish the swim portion. But he wanted to go on. Day turned into evening and the race officially ended. He still had two to three hours maybe more to go. His aunt and uncle had come to watch so they were there near the transition area. The race ended and all the participants, race management, everyone left except Mike. He stayed into the next night and finished the 52+ mile run. He had set out on a mission and was determined to finish it.
At 24 years old, he is the kind of athlete we might also see running marathons for 50 years. It takes athletic ability but also takes the ability to reach down inside and find conviction, fortitude, commitment, inner strength and will power. We are so capable of so much more than we routinely imagine. For this young man he has discovered that early in life. I expect he will achieve a lot in his lifetime and for him may very well get more out of life in return.
I suspect that this is what a lot of lucky humans come to realize or at least benefit from: pushing yourself, stretching the limits, being out there, may take some doing but the returns are more than equally matched..
CC: Joe Aukward
Thanks Glen
To me this is what it is all
about.
Getting out of life what you
put into it and appreciating everything and everyone around. I love our sport
but not just one part of it, every part of. There are times when I feel real
competitive. I want to win, get a PR, achieve some new goals. There are times,
many times, in fact most times now, where I am just so happy to be out there,
to be healthy enough to be running and to have a mindset to do so, to chose to
do so as opposed to all the other things we could get into. Then there is the
recreational, social, spiritual in a way, of sharing the experience with like
minded folk, running all day and night in the mountains with someone or a small
group is such a strong experience, you get past the cocktale party smalltalk in
about 10 seconds and really share a powerful experience. Then when I see an
older athlete, a woman returning to the outdoors and running after surgery or
cancer, or someone with a disability who will not be stopped, these become my
heroes.
I did a 100 mile run in
Florida a few years back and spent hours with a fellow who had some type of
disability.He could not run and had trouble walking. We spent hours and
hours together- It was the middle of the night I was tired so was running and
walking, he was walking because that was all he could do. He was there against
dr advice (sorry Glen some of us do that) and thought it might be his last
attempt at a 100 miler. He did not finish but only because of the wild boars
that became aggressive towards him. He still does some 50s here and there and
lives somewhere in the middle of the country but we both continue to
congratulate each other whenever we learn that the other completed some run or
event.
The people, the challenge,
the trail, the outdoors, the fitness,,, what else is there??