Inspiration

Hi All,

As I'm sure you're all aware, the Commonwealth Games have been going on in Glasgow recently, and draw to a close today.  With that, and the incredible performances the athletes have given, I thought I would tie in and talk about inspiration.

For me this is rather close to home.  I went up and watched quite a lot of the events, and I am fortunate enough to know one of the marathon runners.  Even without this link, marathon runners are hugely impressive; the amount of punishment they put themselves through is crazy, the fact that they should only run two a year is testament to this.  Steve Way's story is incredible, with an excellent article on him here.  But I'm not going to talk about him, others have done so.  I'm going to talk about Louise Damen.

Louise was the top English finisher in the women's marathon in 7th (also better than any of the English men), in a time of 2:32:59.  This from someone who has never received government funding, who works full time as a teacher, while trying to run 100+ miles a week.  And in the aftermath of the games I'd be surprised if you heard anyone talking about her performance despite how impressive it was.  Even at about 40 kms in she's still looking strong.

Having seen what she's gone through to get there, the amount of time recovering from injury, the hours (well weeks probably, maybe months) training, the physio time and everything else done for the love of the sport you can't help but feel inspired.  Running marathons is impressive enough, but doing them at that speed is something else.

While athletes are very inspirational in what they do, and events like the Commonwealth Games highlight them, you can find inspiration everywhere.  It just depends what you're looking for.

I'm going to revisit a story I told you about during my second entry.  The young boy who on his first trip to the play group I helped at was terrified, but a few months later had the sweetest smile you could wish to see.  Knowing that you can make such a difference to a child so easily I find very inspirational in a very different way.  It doesn't keep me going during a race, but it does add backbone to any fundraising efforts, because I know they will help people like him.

On a personal note, my training has been a bit of a mix recently, not had much consistent time with all the sport I've been to watch!  I did a park run yesterday in under 20:30, so I'm not in bad shape which is nice.  Last month before my races!  Wish me luck

Until next time,
Phil