Training Inspiration

Today I got on the train as I do once a week to go to a meeting in the City. I get on the 0730 train so that I can make it to my meeting by 0800 or maybe  just a little later.
The train was chock-a-block full of people going to work, students going to university, and people taking an early start on a long weekend away.
At the train station 2 new daily newspapers are given out for free, so all of the passengers, sitting or standing are engrossed in reading yesterdays news.
In the age of electronic media, printed newspapers seem to have lost their validity, because they can really tell you nothing that you haven’t heard already.

Anyway, I was rehearsing for my meeting in my head, staring out of the window and watching other peoples lives and homes go by, which as usual, left me in a contemplative mood.

A little before it was time for me to get off the train, I gave up my seat, and made my way to the stairs leading down to the doors. As I was standing on the stairs waiting for the train to stop I noticed a man who stood out from the other commuters in that he had an Ipod in his ears, And was wearing running shoes, shorts and a T-shirt with a small back-pouch with water and a couple of snacks (I guess)
It suddenly dawned on me that he was using the train to commute either to a starting point of a run - or he had run from home to wherever and was now training back.
I immediately fell slightly in love with this man, or more likely completely in love with what he represented, standing there in the train, completely doing his own thing, running wherever he wanted to run, running for fun, running for the love of moving his legs, while the rest of the commuters on the train were also in the middle of a race, so to speak, but sadly, they were in the middle of a rat race.
Anyway, this man reminded me of a post I read on XT4’s blog Becoming an Ironman Again pop over and read it if you are in need of inspiration

Yet, I appreciate the elegance of synchronicity, the yin and yang of it all, that it is because one is out now - even for just .5 miles, if they mean something, those miles - that those same footfalls, soon to be atop snow and ice, will at some point take him to the corner of Forever and Huge Gatorade Bottle, and turning that corner on a warm or humid or raining or cold early autumn night, the Whole World will await, like he does now, to see if he can become everything he imagines he can.

Hereupon I toss the first coals, in order to stoke the fires once more. The forging begins. It’s good to be back.

Photo credit Creative commons license