Sleepless Knight
Jedi Knight Seeking His Jedi Princess
- Joined
- May 15, 2008
- Messages
- 4,998
That was wonderful to read. Thank you for sharing. The comment about Jeff downshifting to help so many regular people is especially inspiring.
Absolutely. Sometimes we need to adapt our methods, but certain principles will always apply. I believe Jeff loved inspiring people and never really worried about what methodology they used in pursuit of their goals. I explained run walk run to quite a few people I know.
Labor Day weekend 2008 I went to Disneyland and saw all the runners with their race medals the day of the half in the parks. I did the same thing in 2009, only this time I actually talked to runners and they explained to me that it would be difficult, but not impossible.
Fast forward to 2011 where I mentioned in passing to my little sister that I was thinking about signing up for the Disneyland Half. She proceeded to not let up on me until I did sign up as she wanted to do it as well. Well, I did sign up and realized I had no clue what I was doing. Wanting to do this as inexpensively as possible, I used the Galloway plan on runDisney because it had the benefit of being free. I followed it extremely imperfectly although I did manage to get all the long runs in. Still, having no clue what I was doing, I was pretty sure I was going to fail.
At the Expo, I took time to talk with him in the hopes of getting any last minute advice. What I received was assurance and last minute encouragement that struggles and missing runs, feeling burned out in training, et all happen to all us. Just keep going.
Full of fear and adrenaline the next morning, I started out way too fast and felt like I had a shin splint a half mile in the Half Marathon. I slowed down and finished. While that first one was not a great experience, I concluded that I could do it at least twice more to get the Coast to Coast medal in 2012. Then a funny thing happened. I actually had fun during a race.
I always made a point to listen to Jeff's talks back when runDisney had him speak at the Expo. I would always learn something new from him and appreciated his encouragement. I'm grateful his family knows how much his encouragement meant to so many.
Over the years, I have learned so much. My training has changed. Yet still the core of my running is run walk run. Then in late September 2023, I started to have breathing problems. I was sent to the ER before being admitted to the hospital with pneumonia where I would stay for one week, chest tube in my back, rarely able to complete one tiny loop around the hospital wing with the aid of a walker. I worried about the upcoming back to back Coast to Coast challenge given that I lost a month of marathon training and had to start over from "worse" than scratch. @DopeyBadger helped me with a very revised training strategy again build on the principle of run walk run.
Appropriately enough, I would high five Jeff Galloway right near the finish line of the 2024 Walt Disney World Marathon 3 months to the day when I was in the hospital and managed a whopping 165 steps. And somehow, despite being very undertrained, I had managed to PR that marathon. A week later I would finish the 71 miles for Dopey to 5K/Dumbo at Disneyland.
But more importantly since that first race in 2011, I have had a lot of different challenges in life, some of which have nothing to do with running. But running became an outlet and helped to endure those challenges. When life felt impossible or even when someone who should have loved me never believed in me, I knew from my running experiences that I could accomplish difficult, even impossible things.
And so I am grateful to Jeff Galloway for his role in the runDisney community and believing in people before they believed in themselves because I am one of them. I think his family saying that he is survived by the many runners he inspired to cross finish lines is a powerful tribute. I hope his family and loved ones find peace, hope, and comfort during this time. He will not be forgotten, but more importantly, the many lives he touched will remember him for his encouragement and belief in those of us who were not elite level runners, for those of us who celebrate simply crossing the finish line after nearly 7 hours of running. He celebrated all of it.
