Friday, August 12, 2011

I’ve probably mentioned before the inspiration wall in my office.  On it, I have my personal motto: Just take it…embrace it!  That’s why you’re here.  Surrounding that, from the ceiling to three feet off the ground and one wall side-to-side, I have some of the photos taken of me during the many running races in which I’ve competed.  Accompanying those are my actual running bibs and medals from each of those races. 

Some may think, upon first entering my office and seeing that wall, that I take too much pride in my races.  But I know better.  I often find myself pausing to view each and every one of those photos.  As I do, I recall what I was feeling when the camera snapped the photo.  Of how my body felt.  How, when I still had to wear knee braces on both knees, my legs ached from such. 

More than anything, I love looking at the expression on my face in each photo.  A racer never knows if there will be photos taken of them along the racecourse, and if there are, the runner has no idea where that might take place.  As such, I find it fairly amazing that in almost every single photo, I’m sporting a beaming smile.  In the few where I’m not smiling, the look on my face is sheer determination and translates well to: get the heck outta my way cause I’m not slowing down for anything.

The pictures on that wall span a five-year period of my life when I did the impossible—took back my ability to run despite specialists telling me that would never happen.  Once I resumed running, I took that to a higher level of competing and taking titles in the races I participated. 

Five years is a long time.  Viewing the pictures on my inspiration wall helps remind me to stick with things…even when they become so challenging that I don’t think I can go one more step.  To me, that’s what an inspiration wall should be, something that refills the air in one’s sails when they begin to falter.