Get on the Treadmill and Hit Incline!

I didn't want to like her. I'm talking about Oprah. My mom likes her enough for all of us. "Oprah this and Oprah that...". I think she's her #1 fan. Besides, most of what Oprah preaches I teach myself as a coach. No need to overdo it I tell myself. Okay, so 100% honesty and confession would tell you that I'm just plain jealous. Why don't I have a television show? Oprah has become Barbie. Do you know that humorous bumper sticker that says, "I want to be Barbie. That B*&%$ has everything!" That's how I feel about Oprah. Although I'd never use the B word to describe her. I think she's almost saintly.

But I was on a weekend retreat last weekend. I needed to prepare for a speech (which I've since cancelled in the chaos of what my schedule has become), catch up on tons of reading and do some writing. I picked up Oprah's magazine because I thought some of the articles may inspire my remarks for the talk. I read the magazine cover to cover (and mom if you are reading this, it is NOT an invitation for a year-long subscription, nothing would pain me more). There were several articles or moments in articles, I should say, that spoke to me. You'll read about a few of them in upcoming blogs. In this one I just want to highlight the story on Everest.

A young girl won an essay contest and earned a trip to the base camp at Everest. Wow. Let that sink in for a minute. The caveat was that one of her parents had to escort her. Her mom assumed that would be her dad. He couldn't go because he couldn't get his passport in time. So mom, who wasn't in Everest-shape, joined the gym with only one month to train. Read that again. She had only 30-days to train for a climb to the base camp at Mount Everest! (Contrast that with my own experience of training for a relay in a marathon! I trained for several months!) Taken from the magazine word for word, "she joined the YMCA and set the treadmill on 'incline'". I read this sentence a couple times. I laughed out loud at the simplicity and absurdity of the whole thing. She was one of my new heroes. Not Oprah (that love/hate fest will continue) but this woman who climbed to Everest's base camp just because her daughter wanted to and had won the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do so.

What a great story. Thanks Oprah. (I say with my head down, quietly, while moving my foot back and forth on the floor like a child who just received a gift from the girl they didn't like in class.)

I'm going to put my treadmill on incline when I get it and think of this courageous woman!