Drawing inspiration from Paralympic runners: anything is possible

I went for a run this morning. I’ll never be fast; if I log a 10 and a half minute mile I’m really chuffed. The reason I keep running, despite all sorts of health challenges, is that I always believe I can do it. This may be down to some sort of delusion but I tend to be rather optimistic when it comes to running, often ending up walking uphill because my lungs (never my legs) give up before my spirit does. The thing is, running is hard for me, but I do it because I believe I can.

There’s a lot of other stuff that I ought to be better at than running. Education, qualifications, experience; you name it, I’ve got it. But those things are no use if you don’t believe you can do what you want to do. You could say that wanting to fulfil your potential but not believing you can do it is as crazy and impossible as wanting to be a world class runner and not having legs.

You could say that, but we know, don’t we, that it’s neither crazy nor impossible. We’ve watched Oscar Pistorius, Richard Whitehead and Jonnie Peacock showing us that you can do just that. The one thing you’d think that these men, the first two being double leg amputees and Peacock a single leg amputee, couldn’t do would be to compete in athletics. But they do, and they are all at the top of the world.

These incredible athletes haven’t worked around their disabilities, or despite them, they have actually used their prosthetic legs. They haven’t become world champions at chess or wonderful artists; they have used the legs that they haven’t got, and now they can run faster than nearly everyone in the world who has two legs.

Perhaps the first thing you need to do if you are an amputee and want to run is look at the situation fair and square, accept it and work within it. You need a fantastically engineered running blade (or two), a coach who knows what he or she is doing and a support system. Of course, you need a dream and determination.

So, taking these men as my inspiration, my proof that there is no such thing as impossible, I’m accepting, even embracing my self doubt and focussing on the dream anyway. I’m not pretending any more; this is my stumbling block but it’s a lot less likely to trip me up and keep me from my dream if I look at it, talk about it and remember that it’s there.

Thanks Oscar, Richard and Jonnie; I’m burning your images into my consciousness and reminding myself that possibilities are infinite.