Saturday, January 1, 2011

Do You Know a Running Hero?

You may not know it, but there are heroes all around us. They're not given medals. They're not recognized on the 6 o'clock news. And they're not rich and famous. But, they are heroic nonetheless.

These are ordinary people who overcome extraordinary obstaclesweight challenges, the death of a loved one, a chronic illness, the loss of a job, and/or mental or physical disabilities, just to name a few. Many of these people use running to help them overcome those life obstacles.

Over the past two years, I've featured over 40 examples of these everyday running heroes. These are some of the most inspirational and motivating people I have had the privilege to encounter.

There is Noah who lost over 60lbs to make sure he was setting a good example for his son and so he'd be around to see him grow up. There is Ann affectionately known as "Grannie Annie" who decided to take up running at age 50 and who now at age 67 has run over 70 marathons. There is Danica and her amazing story about her courageous mom's battle with cancer and how running helped Danica gain back some normalcy in her life after the passing of her mom. There is Mel who has an amazing 2nd-chance story of how she regained her life from mysterious seizures. And there is David who used running to help him deal with his sister’s cancer having come out of remission. These are just a few of the 40+ stories shared on the blog.

Recommend a Runner of the Week!
Do you know someone like Noah, Ann, or Mel who with an inspirational running story? If so, I'd love to hear it and share it with the thousands of runners all over the USA and the world who read RunnerDude's Blog. If you know of a great candidate for RunnerDude's Runner of the Week, please email me at runnerdudeblog@yahoo.com. Be sure to put "Runner of the Week" in the email's subject line.

6 comments:

Neil Zee said...

Martin Parnell just ran his last run of 250 in 2010. Oh, yeah they were all marathons. Raising money for Right to Play.

www.mq250.com

RunnerDude said...

Thanks Neil! I'll see if I can connect with Martin! Happy New Year!

Mel-2nd Chances said...

Wow!! Thanks RD! After a bit of a blogging hiatus, I'm been poking around seeing what's going on, and I see your post!! WOW. Thank you. :) I've been following Martin's journey on DailyMile as well. Happy New Year to you and yours!

RunnerDude said...

Sure thing Mel! Hope all is well your way. Happy New Year!

Lauren said...

Thank you again for featuring me! I felt very special!

RunnerDude said...

Sure thing, Lauren! You are special. We each have a story to tell and thanks for sharing yours with us!