The heroes of our stories
I am inspired by stories. Moving stories of ordinary people who not only endure struggle, they learn to thrive alongside it. I love them and believe stories can change the world. Stories inspire, they teach, they create empathy and connection, and they can even make us brave enough to share our own. When we are struggling, it is easy to think that no one has ever gone through what we are going through. Struggle can feel isolating. There is always struggle and running requires that we regularly leave our comfort zone. When we share stories, we learn that we are not “the only one.” Sharing stories lets us know that we are not alone. Even science uses stories to gather data, establish theories and learn more about the world we humans inhabit. In every way, a story is a gift. Runners are famously good at telling stories. When we are at a dark point in a race, a knowing glance from another runner tells us without words that they understand exactly what we are going through. We may never see them again, or we may see them at the next race. Either way, when we pass another runner, we recognize the face of struggle and pain because we’ve experienced it ourselves. We don’t need much more dialogue than, “you’ve got this,” because the empathy and connection created by those knowing glances don’t need words. Running is a story unto itself.
Pre-race and post-race create space for stories. Sometimes the story is the course. Monstrous hills make a perfect antagonist. The race becomes our hero’s journey where we defeat each hill and win back the kingdom by finishing the race. Sometimes the story is the weather. Cold, rain, wind, and heat all conspire to defeat the hero-runner. With tenacity (and maybe the protection of a big trash bag), the runner prevails despite the elements. The story can be our competitors. The story may begin with a competitor seen as our adversary, but along the way, we find the same plot twist that can be found in every race. Our adversary becomes our hero, as they push us to find a will and a strength we never knew we had. By the end of the story, the end of the race, our adversary is our ally, and we learn that who wins isn’t the point of the story. The moral of our race story is that each athlete, with the presence and push of another, can conquer the real enemy common to all. The real enemy is our own doubts and fears. Our competitors make us braver than we knew we could be.
Years ago, I did something I called the “Lighthouse Project.” A group of courageous athletes agreed to share their story. A lighthouse helps us find our way in the dark. Its light serves as a guide for ships so they can find their way to shore. I told the stories of Platte River Fitness Series athletes who found support, encouragement, and even healing in a community wrapped around “a series of races.” By sharing their stories, the athletes themselves were like the light of a lighthouse, giving direction and comfort to fellow travelers trying to live their best lives. Each one was a unique story of transformation. Some stories were about athletes whose journeys started with serious health concerns, others were about struggles with mental health or addiction. All were much too young to give up precious time to life-threatening and/or life-altering health conditions. There was the story of Jeremy Spurgin. Jeremy’s journey toward whole human health took him from fast food restaurants and the emergency room to what is arguably the pinnacle for any athlete, the Ironman Triathlon. Malinda Hayes’ health was also affected by her lifestyle. Like any we take, her journey started with a decision to take the first step. She took consistent small steps toward a “grander journey” where her health not only improved, but she discovered a strong and gifted athlete. Malinda is one of the faces of the PRFS. Tara Hanna shared a tender story about how training and racing and the connections made helped ease the depression that followed the birth of her children.
Each year, I try to share a few of the many courageous stories of the people who make up the Platte River Fitness Series family. The stories of those willing to be lighthouses. The truth is everyone who stands shoulder to shoulder with us at the line has a story to tell, and like the best stories, a runner’s story always starts with a prologue. The reason they first laced up a pair of running shoes, the why behind their first entry form. Running philosopher, Dr. George Sheehan described the role played by the entry form when he said, “The difference between a jogger and a runner is an entry form.”
Like many of our athletes, Shaunee Welsh’s story begins with a decision. The decision to wield a power that belongs to all of us. The power to choose. The necessary prologue to a runner’s journey. I’m not talking about picking a “New Year’s Resolution,” even though we are in the peak season for resolution making. There is plenty of data to show they are most often short-lived choices. The choice everyone must make at some point in their lives is to choose themselves. When we choose ourselves, when we decide we are worthy of good health, worthy of a peaceful mind, worthy of love and connection, worthy of belonging to a community, we can slowly build the strength it takes to change. The first muscle we need to build to find whole human health is self-acceptance. Choosing ourselves means accepting who we are and where we are right now. We start building good habits from a place of strength not a place of weakness. The billion-dollar diet industry hedges its bets that you’ll never make the choice. They want us to believe that the choice is something outside ourselves. We just need to let them help us decide, pick the right diet program, the right supplement, or the perfect piece of fitness equipment. Pick the right one and you’re on your way to making all your dreams come true. If any of those choices were the right first choice, I would have never had a weight problem. Truth is, it would be such an easier choice. Pick a plan, the commercial says, and success is yours. It is harder to start the road to a healthier, more flourishing way of living by realizing no one can give it to you. You have to decide you deserve it and that what you need to get started is within you.
Shaunee’s decision came in 2021, a year when the entire world was in transformation too. Better health is a good motivator, and as a young woman in her twenties and as someone working in healthcare, it seemed like a good time to start to eat better and exercise more. Like a really good story, the plot line isn’t linear. It doesn’t go straight to “and she lived happily ever after.” There was difficulty, there were obstacles and setbacks and more characters to add to the story. A character is so much more heroic when they must do hard things, overcome challenges, walk bravely away from the safety of their “comfort zone.” Shaunee is a great heroine.
As a Great Plains Health employee, their “Couch to 5K” program caught her eye that year. The Couch to 5K program was a free program done in partnership with the Platte River Fitness Series to prepare novice athletes and “never athletes” for their first 5K. Shaunee’s thought? “Why not?” She goes on to describe the first obstacle she faced. The first villain in her story was inconsistency. “I did horrible at sticking to the program and getting where I wanted to be with it.” When the Autumn River Run 5K came around, Shaunee finished the race, but it left her with the feeling that she had a much better story to tell. That feeling of “I could have done better,” is such a powerful motivator, and often the connection between our consistency and effort and the result we get hits us hard, like a slap in the face. Following the Autumn River Run, a new character entered Shaunee’s whole human health story. Just like athletes, heroes come in all shapes and sizes, and a conversation with her 5-year-old nephew helped change the trajectory of her next chapter. There is such an irony in being human. No one can make a lifestyle change until they make a deeply personal choice, but we can get lost easily until we realize we need others to be a part of our story. What was the magic that changed the direction of Shaunee’s story? Her little nephew believed in her. The dialogue might have gone something like; Nephew- “I am proud of you for running a 5K.” Shaunee, chuckling, “I didn’t run it.” Nephew, with wisdom beyond his years, “It doesn’t matter that you didn’t run it, you still did it.” That unforgettable exchange led to joy, and that joy to a commitment to keep trying and start the next chapter.
The part of Shaunee’s story that means so much to me is when she described “…the feeling of inclusion no matter where you are in your fitness journey that you get when joining any Platte River Fitness Series event.” If we do that, that will always be enough for me, inclusion and belonging. Shaunee goes on to say, “I fell in love with the PRFS.” People will grow into a healthy life if you give them what they need in the right order. You need to know how to train to improve, you need to know how to fuel the body you are asking to do the work, you need to know how to plan your race, but first, always first, you need the rich soil required for all those seeds to grow. You need to know you are an athlete. The reality of that fact forms the very first of our new Four Foundations that inform our work. You don’t have to look a certain way, be a certain size, wear the right gear. You don’t have to earn your place at the starting line. Everyone with enough heart to step up to the line deserves to be called an athlete. Shaunee’s goal for 2022 was to be able to run a full 5K by the end of the year, and with “the help and encouragement” of everyone in the PRFS, she proudly shared that she made her goal. Shaunee’s story is a real story of self-acceptance, hard work, and the love of a community. Shaunee concludes, “I love being a part of the PRFS family.” She is loved in return, and we know, without a doubt, by sharing her story, she will become main character in someone else’s story of “becoming a runner.”