Running Mount Rainier

The capacity for everyday heroics is in each of us. Sometimes the most ordinary accomplishment can be the height of inspiration, if only we knew the journey that person traveled to reach that accomplishment. These stories are all around us, if only we stop, look, and listen.

This is one story.

Perhaps it starts lying in the back of an ambulance, wondering if I would walk again, and thinking, with a strange sense of relief, "This is the bottom. It can only get better from here."

Perhaps it starts with a young kid discovering that he had enough athleticism to be more than just the bullied nerd.

Really it starts with the gradual awakening, that crippled though I was, I wasn''t going to give in to being that sad, out of shape, middle aged guy. Awakening became determination. One run, one race at a time determination became accomplishment. Accomplishment became discovery. Rediscovering the love and inspiration of my family. Falling in love with that incredible mountain, Mount Rainier, who slopes cradled so much of my running. And learning all over again that failure is not a cause for fear, and triumph doesn''t always look like what we expect.