The Blog of Awake My Sole: Paul's Story - I held his hair while he puked

Two weeks ago, I was sitting down chatting with a friend who was asking questions about my newest endeavor, Awake My Sole: a year-long trek across the state of Iowa beginning in January 2012.

A good friend asks tough questions.

He asked, "Why should people listen to you as you run and speak across the state of Iowa?"

It was a question that caught me off guard, and I didn't have a great response. I mumbled a response, but really wish I would have had some more time to formulate a better one. I kind of felt like a politician without his notes.

He then asked an even tougher question, "Do you have any success stories, or stories of when you inspired someone?"

I couldn't think of any off hand. Many people have shared over the years of how they were inspired, but right at that moment I couldn't think of any stories.

Like I said, Good friends ask tough questions. They ask tough questions, not to put down, but because they truly want to know what you are doing. Tough question need to be asked, and even more, tough questions need to be wrestled with.

I left the conversation, frazzled. My mind was wrestling with the questions. I remember thinking to myself, "It would be crazy to invest a year of my life running across Iowa, speaking to people, and not inspire anybody. I need some stories of people who have been inspired by what I love to do: by my word and by my running."

The next morning I went for a run with my buddy Paul, and with no nudging on my part, he shared how I inspired him. I asked him to write out what he said to me as we ran, these are his words, Enjoy:

Running is not something that I would have normally considered enjoyable or even fun, but that all changed two years ago in a coffee shop with a small challenge and an invitation to help make a difference in people's lives. I was hesitant at first, but as my buddy Jim continued to ask me to join him in the Red Letter run I felt like it was a chance to try something that would challenge me to do something that I had normally made excuses not to do, and that was run. I have always liked helping people and Jim explained to me that even running 2 miles in the Red Letter run would be a way to help women and children in Orange City. I wanted in. Jim told me a good way to prepare for the run would be to run in a 5k over the Forth of July weekend, and so I did. It was during that run at the 3 mile mark I began to throw up from running. It was at this point Jim stopped and helped me through the throw up process and then encouraged me to finish the race. I learned that day that running is hard if you run just to run, but when you set out to run with a purpose the run becomes less painful and more joyful. The next month I ran in the Red Letter run and it was amazing. Knowing I was running for people who needed help made all the difference and it inspired me to keep training to do more things like that. This past year I ran in the Red Letter run again and instead of doing 2 miles I ran a personal best 5 miles and loved every minute of it. Through all of these stories of running I have learned the importance of encouragement. If I did not have someone like Jim encouraging me to keep going and to finish the race I would have just given up. I believe life is a lot like a race and we all need people to continue to encourage us as we run our own races. It is also important to remember that you can be an encouragement for someone else as well. I hope that we always look for the opportunity to encourage someone else in this race called life.

NOTE: Paul had long hair at the time, and I held his hair while he puked :)