Of all the kilometres I’ve run, I’ve learnt more about ‘life’ than running. I’ve learnt things that I don’t believe I could have learnt any other way. And that’s the bonus gift being active can give us, whatever your sport. On top of all the obvious benefits, it really can teach us so much about ourselves and life in general, if we allow it to.
When I crossed that unlikely finishing line in the 2008 Melbourne Marathon, my eyes welled with pride as I shook my head in disbelief for what I’d just achieved. My body was beyond exhaustion, my mind was bewildered by what had just happened after telling me to stop many times, and my heart and spirit were pounding well beyond the perimeters of my body – it almost felt like they were singing from the rooftops!
It was that race that gave me my first real taste of the concept that anything was possible. And it would be that taste that would see me wanting to repeat it with a second marathon. At this point I had more to learn, because I bounced from one injury to the next for the best part of five years. But still this underlying current of ‘possibility’ lay within me.
Unable to run more than 12 km I found myself signing up to an even bigger race, the toughest one-day sporting event in the world, the IRONMAN event: 3.8 km swim, 180 km ride, 42.195 run. This really was the longest of shots and beyond ‘crazy’ (as friends told me!) to even consider. I had plenty of work to do if I was going to make it to the start line, let alone the finishing line, but I knew buried in my heart, this inkling that anything was possible. That still stood true, despite my years of running setbacks. It had never left me.
That race became even more pivotal for me, it lead to so much. More than I could have imagined at the time. Including writing a book about it, The Power of Possibility. A book that was born from the concept that anything truly is possible – in terms of what we can achieve and how we can get there. And when we discover this for ourselves, and truly believe it – there is an entire of possibility that opens up to us. One we may never have discovered otherwise.
I will always be so very grateful to have discovered all I have through running. And it’s become my passion to ‘inspire possibility’ in others because of this.
For more details connect with Alexandra Andre https://www.alexandraandre.com/
