The Legend....
QUITING IS NOT AN OPTION
“I’m not going to make it to our meeting tonight. I went to the hospital last night.......”
This is a text I got from Austin one Tuesday.
At about 8:00 pm the night before I got a text from Austin asking me if I wanted to go on a 10 mile run with him and another one of our buddies to his grandparents house.
I needed to go running that night anyways. I was training for my first marathon and needed to get the miles in so it was a no brainer for me.
Our other friend, Bart, was also training for his tenth or so marathon.
The point is both of us had conditioned our bodies to handle a 10 mile run.
Austin was in great shape and had been doing some running, but he’d only been running about 3 miles at a time.
Anyone can train their body to run incredibly long distances, but it doesn’t happen overnight. It’s one of those things you have to work at over months.
If you haven’t built that capacity you can run until your bones break. You can push your body so hard that it will start shutting certain functions down in order to preserve its vital organs. You can litterally run yourself to death.
For about the first 5 miles Austin left us in the dust. He was running hard. I couldn’t believe how fast he was going.
About half way through I started to notice him slowing down.
Austin always had a story to tell and always spoke a million miles an hour, but he’d all but stopped talking to me.
I could tell he was hurting, but he wouldn’t let himself slow us down.
I was worried about him, so I told him multiple times to stop and wait and that we would come back and pick him up.
The thing about Austin, is that once he got a thought in his head, there was no stopping him.
He would’ve rather died than quit.
Austin, was going to achieve his goals or die trying. There was no other option.
He wouldn’t live life half way or even entertain the thought.
He lived life as fully as anyone I’ve ever known.
He finished that run.
His angel wife met us out at his grandparents, and Austin drove us back going about 100 miles an hour because he didn’t think he was going to make it to the bathroom in time.
He was so sick.
Later that night he asked his wife to take him to the hospital.
He was home by the next day, but he had pushed himself so hard he ended up in the hosptial.
Austin taught me that if we live life that way, if we believe that quiting isn’t an option, then we can do anything we set our mind to.
He accomplished so much in his life because for him quiting wasn’t an option.
If he thought something was worth doing, then it was happening, end of story.
He knew how to make dreams become realities.
-Derek Law
“I’m not going to make it to our meeting tonight. I went to the hospital last night.......”
This is a text I got from Austin one Tuesday.
At about 8:00 pm the night before I got a text from Austin asking me if I wanted to go on a 10 mile run with him and another one of our buddies to his grandparents house.
I needed to go running that night anyways. I was training for my first marathon and needed to get the miles in so it was a no brainer for me.
Our other friend, Bart, was also training for his tenth or so marathon.
The point is both of us had conditioned our bodies to handle a 10 mile run.
Austin was in great shape and had been doing some running, but he’d only been running about 3 miles at a time.
Anyone can train their body to run incredibly long distances, but it doesn’t happen overnight. It’s one of those things you have to work at over months.
If you haven’t built that capacity you can run until your bones break. You can push your body so hard that it will start shutting certain functions down in order to preserve its vital organs. You can litterally run yourself to death.
For about the first 5 miles Austin left us in the dust. He was running hard. I couldn’t believe how fast he was going.
About half way through I started to notice him slowing down.
Austin always had a story to tell and always spoke a million miles an hour, but he’d all but stopped talking to me.
I could tell he was hurting, but he wouldn’t let himself slow us down.
I was worried about him, so I told him multiple times to stop and wait and that we would come back and pick him up.
The thing about Austin, is that once he got a thought in his head, there was no stopping him.
He would’ve rather died than quit.
Austin, was going to achieve his goals or die trying. There was no other option.
He wouldn’t live life half way or even entertain the thought.
He lived life as fully as anyone I’ve ever known.
He finished that run.
His angel wife met us out at his grandparents, and Austin drove us back going about 100 miles an hour because he didn’t think he was going to make it to the bathroom in time.
He was so sick.
Later that night he asked his wife to take him to the hospital.
He was home by the next day, but he had pushed himself so hard he ended up in the hosptial.
Austin taught me that if we live life that way, if we believe that quiting isn’t an option, then we can do anything we set our mind to.
He accomplished so much in his life because for him quiting wasn’t an option.
If he thought something was worth doing, then it was happening, end of story.
He knew how to make dreams become realities.
-Derek Law