Story Telling

In person, I'm a half-way decent story teller (emphasis on half). I get a lot of practice at work, when I have to stand up and entertain an unenthusiastic audience for 75 minutes at a time. I've got the funny facial features and voice intonations down pat, along with an occasional flair for the dramatic. In print, however, it's a different story; I found that out the hard way the first time I taught an online class. So one hope for the #30daywritingchallenge is to improve my writing to incorporate more of my personality. Or at least keep people awake.

I've started to think about what kinds of stories I want to tell people. Two things come to mind: travel and running. Of course, those are things that a lot of people write about, and do so better than I ever could. But don't worry - I'm not suddenly going to turn into a lifestyle guru and tell you how to travel the world on a shoestring budget (but if you figure out how, please let me know) nor am I going to start advertising my Instagram site (unless you like pictures of cranky fat cats). I'm just going to tell you about things I did, places I saw, and people I met. 

So on that front, here's a quick story about one of my pacers at the Chicago Marathon last month. I ran with the 4:25 pace group and one of the pacers was running his 197th marathon! Can you believe that? He was in his early 50s and after a career as an attorney, decided to make some life changes and became a dedicated runner and fitness coach. It was my 15th marathon, but at the moment, I definitely felt small and unaccomplished.

Until I started running with him. This man was the essence of what I love about runners: welcoming, encouraging, kind, and enthusiastic. He made me proud to be a runner - and he made sure that everyone around felt proud to be a runner. He spent 3 miles coaching a first time marathoner through a wall, several miles learning about everyone's life, and never missed saying thank you to police, volunteers, and spectators who came out an a cold, early morning in Chicago to cheer on 45,000 (you read that correctly - 45,000 people ran the Chicago Marathon) crazy people who thought that running 26.2 miles was a good idea.

I think that's why so many people write about running. Because of experiences like that. So far, I've run marathons in 16 cities spanning 15 states and 2 continents. And every time I think it's time to take a rest, I think about all of the amazing people I won't meet or the places I won't see if I stop. So I keep running. It's worth it.


 


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