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Widen your stance. #TheRunningWriter


Widen your stance.

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I used to be a speed skater. One evening, about five or six days before I was scheduled to go skate a big race, I was doing some speed work with a group of skaters.

Just to keep the legs fresh and feet moving fast.

So in our draft line of about six or seven people, we were clipping along-about 20 miles an hour.

Another skater came up behind me to join the line. Nothing out of the ordinary. Except that she accidentally stiff-armed me on her approach.

And I wiped out hard.

As in rolled and rolled. On the hard asphalt.

It was ugly how much skin I left on that asphalt. And after a trip to the ER–and getting treated like a burn patient–I walked out of there looking like a mummy.

My whole leg was wrapped, along with quite a bit of both of my arms and shoulder.

I’m in the exam area with the doc and I asked, “Hey. Can I still race?”

He just looked at me for a long second. He didn’t say anything, but I could see the “are you nuts?” phrase floating around that brainiac noggin of his.

Basically, since I hadn’t broken any bones, I was given the go-ahead to race.

I bet a few of you reading this are thinking I was nuts.

Yeah well, maybe I was. Because I raced. I showed up at that start line half-mummified and I raced.

And I kicked butt. Even beat the girl who stiff-armed me.

Nothing was going to keep me from my goal. Well broken bones would have, but other than broken bones, I wasn’t going to miss the adventure I’d been working so hard for.

Yeah. It was a big obstacle. Painful, too. But we can’t let bumps in the road-or shoves in the back-knock us off our goal.

Because there are people who will-on purpose & accidentally-try and set you back. There are accidents. There are uncontrollable things that can happen that can plow you over.

Don’t let them. Plant your feet, lean forward, and widen your stance so nothing can tip you over.

If you stay balanced, there isn’t much that can knock you down.

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NYT & USA Today Bestseller & ultra-runner known as #TheRunningWriter. Agents: Joyce Sweeney & Nicole Resciniti of The Seymour Agency.