A Great Motivation to Get Out There and Run

Motivating Myself to Run by thinking of a Challenged Athlete

Sometimes I have to drag myself out of bed to go run in Central Park. Motivation can be really tough. Still, I try to get there and run on Tuesday mornings with my team, TerrierTri (http://www.terriertri.com/) and on Thursdays to do a bike/run brick with them. Other days, I run or bike alone, and that's when it's tough to push myself – especially if it’s cold or raining or stifling hot. Once I'm in the park running, I usually have all these negative thoughts: I’m not fast enough. I should quit. I’m slower than last year. What am I doing here? Usually, I make myself run through the bad thoughts and only quit if I’m injured – those were legitimate reasons.

But recently I went to a triathlon training night let by Dr. Jordan Metzl (himself an Ironman), who started the evening by showing us a film about a sweet eight-year-old, Cody McCasland. Cody was born with sacral agenesis which resulted in no tibias, and when he was 15 months old, his legs were amputated through the knees. Two months later, Cody was walking on prosthetics, completely mobile. But he wanted to run like the other kids, so when he turned five, he was given his first pair of running prosthetics and he’s been running ever since.

In the film, young Cody is asked on camera, “How fast are you?” He grins and says, “Very fast.” Then you see Cody teach his friend Cameron how to run. Cameron has just donned his first pair of running legs. “Run, Cameron,” calls Cody. When they stop, Cody tells him, “The more you do it, the more faster you’ll get.”

While only a first-grader, Cody has helped raise more than $100,000 for the Challenged Athletes Foundation (http://www.challengedathletes.org) and the hospital which provides his care. And though just a kid, he has inspired hundreds of individuals – both challenged and not (and has been on Inside Edition, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and The Ophrah Winfrey Show).

So these days, when I wake up and start to bad-talk myself about how I don’t want to get up or go run or bike or do yoga, I just think of little Cody bounding across the lawn, sporting a grin as wide as his face, and knowing there are no limits to what he can accomplish. Inspired by his joy and optimism, I can still hear him saying to himself, “Run Cody Run!” And suddenly I have every reason in the world to get up and just do it.