More Inspiration

Today I am back to reading my book "The Courage to Start" that Michael gave me. I hope he never wants it back because it is proving to also be a great reference book for me. It has great index if I have questions and different parts of it are relative at different times for me.

In particular I was looking for information on injuries but ventured into some other areas of the book. That is where I found this section that brought tears to my eyes:

THEY'RE CHEERING FOR YOU
But the most extraordinary reason to race was given to me by the most ordinary of runners. He was in his mid-forties as I was. He had been running for only a few years, as I had. He had worked hard and raised a family. He had done all the things that he thought he should do.

We were running together at the midpoint of a large marathon. The day was beautiful and the crowds were terrific. At every turn, in every neighborhood, people lined the streets and crowded the intersections to share in the moment and shout encouragement to the runners.

I looked over during the race and saw that this man had tears streaming down his face. My first thought was that he had injured himself. I could almost feel his disappointment as I moved closer to him. From the pained look on his face, I was sure that his race was over.

"What's wrong?" I asked. "Are you hurt?" "No," he replied softly, "I'm not hurt." "Then why the tears?" I asked. "Because... I just realized that in my entire life, no one has ever cheered for me before." Soon I was crying with him.

I have to ask myself, had anyone ever cheered for me. I don't think so. Other than in the delivery room giving birth. It's going to feel really good.