The snow doesn’t stay around for long here in S.E. Missouri.
We usually only get a light dusting -enough to conceal a dangerous layer of ice.
On one such day I found myself on a 5 mile training run. The temperature must have been in the low 20s.
As I picked my way along the road trying to avoid the icy patches I suddenly saw footprints.
I thought to myself, “There is only one other person in our neighborhood crazy enough to be out running on a day like today.”
The footprints belonged to Angie! She trekked through that same morning . . . finishing her run before breakfast.
I could tell that she sought out the safest part of the road. She is always conscious of injury prevention and the perils of slipping on ice. Each step was carefully chosen.
So I followed her footprints.
Metaphorically, my whole experience with running has been following the path that Angie blazed. I doubt I would be a runner had we not fallen in love. I despised running.
What’s more, I’m a marathoner today because she had the courage to take on the challenge of marathon training in 2008. She dreamed big and took action and it has influenced our whole family.
Angie didn’t make me a long distance runner, I had to realize that potential for myself. But she always believed in me.
Similarly, we here at Marathon Training Academy believe in you. You do have what it takes to run a marathon and change your life!
And you never know who will follow your example. By running a marathon you are boldly declaring,
“I can endure hardness, I can go the distance, I can accomplish the extraordinary, I can take control of my health and fitness!”
People will take notice. Perhaps one might be crazy enough to follow your footprints.
Thanks for this little bit of poetry, Trevor. I live in a small frozen town in South Dakota. I’ve mostly given up hope of seeing anyone else’s running shoe prints in the snow.
But my wife inspires me too, in different ways. She’s also an RN and is a new mother, but doesn’t run quite as much as Angie does. I’m thankful for her every day.
Our thoughts and prayers are with you guys during this difficult time.
Eric
Hi Eric, I have made the marathon drive across South Dakota a few times. It’s a beautiful place.
Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. Angie is steadily building her mileage back and looking forward to a good running year.
Thanks, Trevor, for an inspiring note. While you’re on the topic of running in the snow, I recommend ice cleats for folks in snowy country. I use Ice Joggers, which work well. They are networks of rubber with small spikes that fit over your shoes. There are several other brands of products for the same purpose, such as Stabilicers and Yaktrax. It makes a big difference, especially in these days of partly melted snow refrozen into slick ice, then covered over with an inch or more of fresh snow. I’ve run many miles in snow safely with ice cleats here in the Rocky Mountains. Let it snow!
Hi Trevor. I too had a footprints in the snow experience.
He said one day that I would remember. Remember that he would have died, had it not been for 380,000 Team in Training runners collecting $850 Million – used for finding cures for blood cancer. Remember that no matter how cold or dark the morning was, if I really wanted to run my first Marathon, I would have to keep up with my training. The road ahead is long. But on Marathon day, to cross the finish line AND help find more cures would be the greatest experience of my life.
He was wrong.
Yes, I DID remember what he said, OK. Especially one morning. 19 degrees Fahrenheit, way, way below freezing, and dark outside. 5 a.m. Snow. Philadelphia. I had climbed back in bed. Then I remembered David’s voice….
20 minutes later, I was shivering on the track. Had I lost the plot completely?
Stretching quickly, I started to run – just to warm myself. Hard to make out the track because of the snow. Crunch, Crunch….. Alone in the dark….running on the snow. Crazy !
Was that footprints I am seeing ahead as I run?…… Now I KNOW I am really loosing what little sanity a 53 year old grandpa has left……..
No, they are there….in the snow….footprints in the dark up ahead. And the more I run, the stronger they become. More distinct……clearer. Until in time I can clearly see every step He had taken before me. You know that little poem, that little prayer? Footprints in the Sand….
Then they slowly faded.
I was running alone again. Crunch, Crunch…..Crunch, Crunch….Crunch, Crunch.
My God ! I can see them again ! The footprints…getting stronger… definitely. Then fading, like the first lap.
It took me three more laps to figure it out. The sunset the night before had warmed one side of the track, making the footprints stronger on one side. Many had walked the track before me.
But David was wrong.
Because long before Marathon Day
For just a fleeting moment,
I had walked
In the footprints of
My Savior