Inspiration

My life lesson of the week is that inspiration is relative.  You don’t have to be Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Michael Jordan or Oprah to inspire people.  Sometimes just being yourself inspires people around you.  Huh.

I was out for a run last week and ran into a classmate from grad school.  After doing that weird dance of thinking you recognize someone, realizing you know who they are but do they recognize you and then acknowledging you do know each other, all while running past each other in the space of about three seconds, I found myself stopped to talk mid-run.  Usually I hope for a bridge lift during runs but this was a much more fun reason to stop for a few minutes.

After doing a brief catch up, she said that she’s starting to really get into running.  I love when people discover the amazingness that is running.  It’s such an exciting journey, especially in that time frame when it’s new and fresh and before you start to experience the annoyance of injuries.  She also mentioned that she found my running updates via Facebook (the good and the complaining) inspiring.  That made me stop mid-sentence.  I run maybe three times a week for a high mileage of twenty miles a week.  And I run slow.  Last week I was passed by a man pushing a stroller and pulling his dog.  Uphill.  I was highly confused as to what inspiration could possibly be found in there.   I found myself stunned and pleased and grateful for this new perspective.

 I have friends who run marathons and ultras.  That is who I look up to in my running life.  I have friends doing Ironman’s.  That is inspiring.  The people I see running who are clearly overweight and trying to make a change in their life?  Those are the runners who are inspiring.  An average Joe who runs to ease stress and so she’s tired enough to sleep at night?  That hardly seems inspiring.  But apparently inspiration is relative.  As I’ve had a difficult couple of running weeks, I’m trying to keep this in mind.  A crappy run is better than no run at all.  And you never know who you’re inadvertently inspiring while celebrating or whining about life to your Facebook friends.