You Never Know Who’s Watching

kyle-kranz-unsplash-jogalong-stroller, normal runners

Image by Kyle Kranz via Unsplash

You. Are. Awesome.

I don’t know about you, but I can be a wee-bit overly critical of myself for my myriad of shortcomings as a runner. And because of that, it’s easy to think that I’m nothing fancy.

However, I am something fancy.

And so are you.

Who Inspires You?

When I think about the runners that inspire and amaze me, you might think that it’s the Mebs, Shalanes, and other elites of our sport that come to my mind.

Those runners are obviously incredibly talented and hard working, but they are so far beyond my capabilities that I can’t begin to wrap my head around what they are doing.

They are awesome, but watching an elite running at a “conversational pace” which is pretty much the same as my one mile PR pace doesn’t help me get out the door to go run at 4 o’clock on a Saturday morning.

You know what does motivate me to get out of bed when the alarm goes off and all I want to do is turn off the alarm and roll over?

Normal runners.

Like the guy who shows up at our Saturday long runs with his son in the stroller because his wife was out of town and he wasn’t going to miss his 10 miler even if it means pushing a sleeping toddler.

Like the woman who started running in her 50s and never misses a running club workout. She’s far from the fastest of the regular crew, but you know she will be there rain or shine.

It’s not the fastest runners that inspire me. Sure, I marvel at their abilities and I may occasionally wish that I could keep up with them for at least a mile or two.

But the runners that truly inspire me are typically the ones that probably don’t think they are doing anything special. They just show up, do their best, and don’t worry about the rest.

Who are You Inspiring?

As a running coach, I try not to make guarantees to my athletes.

But I can absolutely guarantee you one thing: you are an inspiration to someone.

I don’t care if you’ve “only” been running for a few months or if you “only” run/walk most of your mileage.

Someone is watching you. And they are inspired by you.

Maybe that means you’re inspiring them to start running for the first time.

Maybe that means that you’re inspiring them to sign up for a race distance that they’ve never had the courage to attempt before.

No matter how pedestrian you think your running may be, someone else is watching what you are doing and wishing they could do what you do.

Like I said earlier, you are awesome.

Please don’t ever forget that…

By Denny Krahe

Denny Krahe is a Certified Athletic Trainer and Running Coach specializing in helping runners prevent common running injuries and being able to run pain free. He is also the host of the "Diz Runs With..." podcast.