Running Towards Inspiration

What does it mean to be inspired? That was the question I sought as I started my run.

I planned on running from town to home, a 7.5-mile run. In a run where the start is different than the finish, you are committed to completing the run. Today was a day where early in my run I wanted to call it a day but I couldn’t because I had to get home. I needed inspiration.

I thought about who inspired me. Throughout my running career, there have been many great runners to admire but my childhood hero was Craig Virgin, who won 9 big ten conference championships and the 1975 NCAA Cross Country Championships. I met him when I ran my first Marathon in 1980. He was the main speaker at the banquet following the race and he came and introduced himself to me when he learned a 10-year-old finished the marathon. For a young impressionable runner, he was a celebrity. A few months later I had the honor of lining up next to him in a 10K and I was proud to say I kept up with him for about ½ a mile before he left me in the dust.

Since then I’ve had many that have inspired me throughout my life. The greatest of them is my wife, Jackie, and my three kids, John, Ansley, and Joseph. When I turned 40 I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. I had gone a period of time without running and had gained weight. I decided to return to running and had a shirt made. On the front it said “Why Run?” and on the back, it said “For Them” and it had a picture of the kids.

Yesterday the inspiration was my daughter’s teammate from her volleyball team. She helped the team win a volleyball tournament, playing on a torn ACL. At one point she fell and I wondered if perhaps she was done. She sat down for a game and then was back at it. I figured if she could endure a volleyball tournament on a torn ACL I could finish a 7-mile run despite my lame reason of being tired.

That is inspiration. It is moving others to be the best version of themselves. It is being moved to be the best version of yourself. And as I thought about what that girl meant to the team I was inspired to finish my run.

Inspiration is the art of moving your desire from extrinsic motivation to intrinsic motivation. It is moving the “why” I do it and making it an innate part of what I do. Today I was inspired by the heart of a champion. I didn’t want to run today. It would have been just as easy to call it a day. But the heart of the champion, who played despite setbacks, persevered.

Inspiration comes from our heroes, our loved ones, and those that show heart. It is seeing them and finding the why. Our heroes pave the way. Our loved ones inspire us to be better for them. And the heart of the champion shows us to dig deeper than what we thought we could.

And that is the Transformative Power of the Run.