Goals can make difference

When Silvia Ruegger was young and wanted to go for an early morning run, her mother would follow her in the car so her way would be lit.
Running on the dark country roads of Newtonville,  became a way of life for the future Olympian.
She still remembers that vividly now.
Silvia came to speak to my marathon group last week and her talk was so inspiring I think everyone wanted to go and write their goals down and try to accomplish them.
First, I must start, for those of you who don’t know, Silvia still holds the record for the fastest women’s marathon run at 2:28:36.
It has been the record for almost 25 years.
The time is obviously incredible and more astonishing given she didn’t have the technology of electrolyte drinks and energy gels we have.
She ran on pure water.
She ran in the first-ever women’s Olympic marathon in 1984 in Los Angeles.
Once you get over the shock that women only started running the Olympic marathon in 1984, her participation in that historic event becomes even more amazing.
Whenever a decorated athlete — particularly an Olympian — comes for a talk, I find myself studying their every move, the way they walk and talk, to see what’s different.
What makes them special?
Is it something you can notice by just watching them?
I can never find one thing in common other than this drive, from the inside that keeps them striving for the top.
With Silvia, even though her historic marathon was nearly 25 years ago, she could recount everything as if it happened yesterday. Her dedication and drive echoed through the room and every one of us was fixated on what she was saying.
At the beginning of her talk, Silvia said, “Some people wonder what they might have in common with me, but there’s a lot.”
She came armed with something I thought was really special and it allowed me to see what I have in common with her.
When she was 15 and watching the 1976 Montreal Olympics, she was so inspired she took a scrap of paper wrote down a goal, to represent Canada at the Olympic games in 1980.
She then folded it and slid it between the two floor boards in her bedroom. She covered the crack with masking tape and coloured the tape grey to match the floor.
She kept it a secret.
Well, in a frame alongside her Olympic bib, is the note that she eventually went back and took back from beneath the floor.
I rubbed the bib for luck as did many of the others there.
She achieved her goal in 1984 and told us that just because you don’t make your goal on the schedule you set for yourself, doesn’t mean you should stop trying.
Good advice.
I went home that night and wrote something on a piece of paper with the date.
She inspired me.
I hid it and didn’t tell anyone.
I always write goals down on paper, ones that are important. I was recently at my parents’ house in my old room.
And while I’d been there many times, since I had moved out, I forgot about the two goals I had stuck to my mirror.
One was a half marathon time I wanted to beat and the other a marathon time I wanted to beat. I wrote those well before marathons were even on my radar.
I’m pleased to say, both goals were met and then some.
Aside from goal-setting, I think one of the most important points Silvia shared with us, was her story about having to fight injuries and the not so smooth path to her goal.
This is the time where our body is good to us or bad to us.
It is the time when we fear injuries and that our body is fatigued.
We’re well into our training and there’s only a few weeks left before our goal races. 
Silvia was excelling at her sport when she injured her Achilles tendon.
The injury forced her to take two and a half years off from training, but instead of being upset she took to the pool for water running and pedalling on stationary bikes to keep her cardio up.
In the end she made it to Los Angeles as the youngest competitor in her field finishing an amazing eighth place.
Her talk was inspirational and I believe everyone of us could relate to her on one level or another.
It was the perfect inspiration for the Around the Bay road race this weekend.
I will post about that tomorrow.