Motivation

At the beginning of the New York City Marathon this past Sunday, I read on Twitter that Chilean miner Edison Peña completed the first five kilometers (or 3.1 miles) of the marathon in 29 minutes. Since that time is about on par with one of my worst high school cross-country 5k races (and even on a good day, I didn’t live up to my roadrunner mascot’s speed), I was worried about Peña’s ability to finish.

A few hours later, I was pleasantly surprised to hear he finished all 26.2 miles in 5 hours, 40 minutes, and 51 seconds, despite nagging knee pain and the fact that although he ran in the mine, it was only ever about six miles at a time.

After the race, he said that after coming all this way, he knew he couldn’t stop and powered through with a combination of running and walking.

The week before the marathon, I interviewed Brian Kuritzky, a fellow Cornell alum who completed an Iron-man length triathlon without any additional training besides his usual 10 hours a week of soccer. Just reading his blog’s description of the pain his body was in as he swam and biked hundreds of miles before running a marathon, made my own legs hurt.

Besides the freakish athletic ability of these two men, what stands out most to me is their mental toughness. While the thought of running just one mile is enough to scare most people, these men were able to run (and bike and swim) so many more. They had little training and endured lots of pain, yet somehow managed to keep going in events that many trained competitors can’t even complete.

And in contrast to most super athletes, Edison and Brian completed their races with little financial incentive. Edison, who was originally invited to New York just to watch the marathon, decided to run it to inspire others. He said in an interview, “It was worthwhile for me to come this far to run a marathon, because I want to motivate people. I want to convince them that they can do what they set out to do in life.”

Brian, meanwhile received nearly $200,000 for his race, all of which is going to breast cancer research since the disease killed his mother.

While neither athlete may be able to kick the winning field goal or shoot the winning basket, in a world full of stories of athletes lying and cheating their way to fortune and fame, these two are a refreshing reminder of people using their mental and physical abilities to do some good for others.

If you would like to donate to Brian’s cause, the Susan G. Komen for The Cure organization, click here.