We have all heard about and felt an inspiration in various situations, forms, etc. I am a member of a group of mom's on Facebook that are all runners at different places in our fitness journey. Some of our mom's are Ironmen, and some of us have only completed a couple of 5k's. The one truth I have found in this group is that these women are a huge support system for each other, they are proud of each other, they fight for and defend each other, and we are downright silly too.
Earlier this week, one of our running mom's posted a picture, and information about a friend of hers. Here is the post she made:
She is a long time asthma and allergy sufferer, with multiple collapsed lungs
and multiple hospital stays her entire life. Long story short, she attempted
Ironman last June and got pulled from the water at only 500 yards. Tough day.
This year, she came back out, swam in the 52 degree lake, biked and made the
bike cutoff by 10 minutes (including a tire that exploded) and ran her heart out
on the marathon. We cheered her in with a WILD crowd as she made her way down
the finishers chute, only to miss the midnight cutoff by 23 seconds. I truly
have never felt so emotion during a race. She crossed the finish late but Mike
Reilly (the voice of Ironman) called her back out to talk to her, gave her an
enormous bouquet of flowers and one of the top males came out and put his medal
around her neck. The media was ALL over her, and they allowed her to grab her
sign and do a victory lap down the finishers chute and back through the finish.
"Dear Asthma, I Win!" She truly is one of the most insertion people I know, and
is an example every single day, that if you want something bad enough, nothing
can stand in your way.
She is all over our papers/news and last night at the
volunteer banquet they honored her, and had her come up to talk. She got a
standing ovation from 3000+ volunteers.
Well, today, Paula posted a link to the video showing this awesome feat of athleticism. I don't know that I have ever been so impressed and inspired. This woman is the stuff dreams and legends are made of. I can't help but feel that if she can finish an Ironman with the severe asthma that she has, I can get in shape and finish the Princess Half Marathon. I would love to meet this woman and shake her hand.
- Here is a link to the Youtube video of her finishing. I don't care if she finished 23 seconds after the midnight deadline, she is an Ironman. The 2nd most inspirational person in this video is the man that volunteered to give her his medal. If I heard the video correctly, I think they said that they had already given her a medal. I also noticed that when I was watching it and they had her made another trip down the finisher's chute, it was almost 10 minutes past the midnight deadline, and there hadn't been another finisher come by.
Disclaimer---if you have a tendency to cry, get some tissues ready:
i just watched this - amazing :)
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