My Mountain, My Hope "13 weeks of Training" 13.2 Eugene Marathon 2012

I am 43 years old and this is my first marathon. I have never run over ten miles, even though having been a natural athlete my whole life. December 18th of 2010 an injury to my back and spine took my mobility away. I could not walk.  I spent 5 Ambulance rides to River Bend hospital because my dysfunction caused me to begin having full body muscle spasms that looked like seizures. The doctors are baffled, therapy doesn’t fix the problem and, I’m eventually left on my own. In March 2011 begin teaching my broken body to walk again. I start by limping around my parking lot for three weeks often chasing a small ball, three more weeks walking around the block, and then running a few hundred yards by fall I was cresting at 5 miles. Winter was hard all my fears and stresses dealing with seeking treatment and my progressing illness caught up to me. I needed a proverbial “Mountain” to climb to beat back the desperation, and I began running again; for, it was the only thing that helped. I began again at 2 miles with many stops. I ran through the storms, hail, and snow bundled in my powder blue Titans track uniform, cap and gloves. It was March 13 while watching a news cast I got this idea of running the ½ marathon. I ran, up my hill everyday and then into the flats of Springfield ever increasing my distance and time. I ran everyday through the pain finding joy among the moments of hope in the run and I danced in the road puddle jumping. I entered the ½ marathon 4/19 when I completed three 10+ mile runs in a row. I’m still handicapped, but what I found was the impossible mountain isn’t so bad if you, chip away at it every day, growl back at it, or eventually run over the top of it. I picked up my bib today and had built my self up for the event, and felt let down. It was later on my walk that I realized that I had made a goal which I had not been able to do for some time since my injury. I felt good sort of like “Hope’ renewed. In my case that means everything.

Chef John Ernst aka “Thor”