Sept. 2008-The Legs Of A Runner

I think the best thing about our tri club is how we support and encourage each other. You never know what effect you can have on another person, just by reaching out to them. Such was the case when I had a chance meeting with a stranger…

A couple years ago, before I was a triathlete, I went to downtown Cedar Rapids to watch the Alliant Energy Fifth Season Race on the Fourth of July. As I walked to the race site, one of the competitors walked up next to me.

“Why aren’t you running today?” he asked.

I laughed. “Oh, I don’t run. I could never run an 8K.”

“You could do the 5K,” he said. “That’s not very far.”

At that time the idea of running three miles sounded like an impossible task. “I don’t know,” I said.

“Next year you should definitely run the 5K,” he said. “You have the legs of a runner.”

With that, the stranger walked away and I stood there, staring down at my legs. “Legs of a runner,” I said to myself and I imagined racing like a Kenyan with six-foot strides and the speed of a cheetah. Maybe I COULD be a runner…

The following week I threw on a pair of shoes and started running in my neighborhood. I didn’t get very far and I absolutely hated it. Why would anyone WANT to run?!

But, for the same reasons that keep me doing triathlons (stubbornness and an unwillingness to quit), I kept running. I made a schedule and increased my distance by a little each week. I gradually hated it less and I started to look forward to my runs. It gave me time to think and clear my head. I felt free on my runs; it was just me and the road.

The first time I ran 2.5 miles I came home and cried. You would have thought I finished a marathon. “I never thought I could run that far,” I said to my Golden Retriever. (She told me “Good job, Mom.”)

The following spring I ran my first 5K race and my first Pigman. That July, like the stranger told me, I ran the Alliant Energy 5K race. I had come full circle.

This year I totally went crazy and did the BIX 7-mile race in Davenport. I didn’t have the legs of a Kenyan, but I proved to myself that I could keep pushing the limits of what I thought was possible. It was the toughest race I had ever done, but for the first time, I truly felt like I had learned to love running.

This month I returned to the Alliant Energy race and ran the 8K. I dedicated it to the stranger who told me I had the legs of a runner. Because he had given me encouragement, I had achieved what I thought was impossible. You never know how you can touch someone else’s life…