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HomeDon't Listen to Lucy .....continued
A mere five years ago while at the age of forty, Harding recounts that he was an overweight couch potato of 220 pounds and a non-runner. Nevertheless, Harding had a dream; a dream to run a marathon. Being a bit of glass half-full type spirit, Harding didn’t want to run just any marathon...but the grand-daddy of all marathons. He wanted to run the Boston Marathon.
“When disappointment knocks you down, get back up and go again!”
He realized as he pulled his oversized “tush” off the couch that in order to become a runner, he needed to look like a runner. So, in December 2007, Harding “waddled” into a local shoe store to buy his inaugural pair of “running shoes”. The sales manager looked Harding up and down as he approached her as if assuming that he took a wrong turn while looking for Mrs. Field’s Cookie Emporium and asked what he wanted. Harding shared his dream of running a marathon and not just any marathon; he wanted to run the Boston Marathon.
“Don’t let ever let ‘good enough’ be good enough. Keep pressing on.
Keep believing. You were made to ‘Dream Big’ and leave
a mark on this generation!”
The sales manager, who was a respected marathon runner in her community, looked at Harding’s overweight build and “Lucyed” saying, “You will never run a marathon.” Like Charlie Brown lying on his backside as Lucy yanked away the pigskin, those words crushed Harding’s dream of ever running a marathon.
Four years later Harding has run 9 marathons, qualified for the Boston Marathon in 2012, 2013 and 2014, run with Team Hoyt in 2012, 2013 and completed his first Ironman in 2012.
Wes Harding
Destined to Run
