I couldn’t walk without feeling excruciating pain. I didn’t know if I would make it to the starting line let alone finish my first marathon, and I just wanted to give up …
To provide context, in 2015, I made a new year’s resolution to run a marathon. When I made the resolution I couldn’t run more than 3 miles at a time due to bad knee pain. But when I got a spot in the marathon via their lottery system, I felt compelled to give it a try as this has been something I’ve wanted to do since college.
I trained, using cross training and stretching to avoid knee pain, and slowly built up my mileage, but then sprained my hip. The pain was so bad I couldn’t walk much without feeling a lot of pain, let alone run.
I stopped training for 3 weeks, and then, through physical therapy and a lot of support from loved ones I slowly regained strength in my hip until I could walk longer distances, then bike, and finally run again. In the weeks leading up to the marathon I continued to have issues with my hip, but continued to get amazing support from my wife and others. So much support that by the time today came, I internalized the confidence they had for me within myself, and had no doubt that I would finish.
And when I ran the marathon that fall, I saw many other runners who’s struggle to make it to that day was evident, which also put my own struggles into stark perspective—a blind runner, a runner with only one leg, a mother running for her son who was dealing with drug addiction, a pair of young siblings who had recently lost a parent—and the list goes on.
It was amazing to see people accomplish an incredible feat despite the setbacks they faced in life and I was humbled to be a part of an experience with so many courageous and motivated people.
Experiences like this bring meaning to the term “the human spirit,” and that was certainly the highlight of the marathon experience for me.
What I have taken from that day is that if you believe in others and believe in yourself, anything is possible. That is the power of the human spirt.
