One of the most inspirational triathletes that I’ve read about recently is John Young who is a ‘little person’ (his words).
http://bethehammerjy.blogspot.co.uk/
If John can achieve a Boston Qualifying marathon time and complete an Ironman, what excuse do the rest of us have?!
If you want to find out about John’s latest adventures, check out his Facebook page. You can also read the official Ironman article about him: John Young breaks barriers in triathlon.
After a collision with one of the local buses when he was younger, Julian Molina was left with a completely destroyed foot, which later became infected with gangrene, traumatically resulting in the amputation of his entire leg. Most would quit here, but not Julian.
Despite his situation, the man has only looked forward and up, and two wheels has been his vehicle in that journey. Today he’s stomping tricks he couldn’t land with two legs, and riding with a bigger heart and smile than most. This is Julian Molina’s story.
To learn more about Julian, read Meet the BMXer who lets nothing stand in his way. You can also visit his Facebook page.
In an interview with Marie-Claire, Cassie said:
I’m most proud of the fact that I’ve been able to hold onto that unrelenting belief that things would work out and I could embrace the change.
Just get out there and give it a go. I think that life is far too short to worry about what other people think, and whatever it is that you enjoy, you should get out there and do it.
I know all too well what it’s like to be constantly stared at and if people stare, you should just let them, because it doesn’t matter – you don’t have to be the best. You should just put aside all of those doubts and fears of judgement and failure, put them all aside and just give it a go.
It’s about having the courage to try things out and to get involved with sport and exercise, even if you’re worried about it. I want to confront people’s perceptions and change the way people look at it, because you don’t have to be the person that people think you are. Anyone can be involved in sport.
Cassie is not only an inspirational young women, she’s also talented. Cassie is a paratriathlete on the GB Talent Squad and snowboarder on the GB Parasnowboard Development Team! She also writes a fantastic blog: One Leg Don’t Care.
It’s not really workout related, but I like this video by Zach Anner.
If you don’t have time to watch the video, just take away the key message of treating people as individuals 🙂
I was recently sent a copy of D.D. Mayers’ autobiographical book: You have not a leg to stand on to review. All opinions about this book are my own.
I understood that it was an autobiographical account of a man’s life following paralysis, but apart from that, I didn’t have a lot of information. My initial assumption was that the book would focus on the writer’s life after his accident, but I was proved wrong.
My expectation was that the narrative would focus on Mayers’ life after his accident, but it covers his entire life. At times I was frustrated by the fractured sequence of events, however in the end this structure lured me in and made me want to read on. I think perhaps I just needed to change my mindset, when I mentally recategorised the book as ‘memoirs’ instead of an autobiography then it met my expectations!
The descriptions of life in Kenya and the other places that Mayers visited (such as the Scottish Highlands) are evocative and made me want to visit those locations. However, I really wanted to see a few pictures of the places mentioned in the book and the ‘characters’ as this really helps me to visualise everything that is being described. Since reading the book, I’ve found D.D. Mayers’ blog, which includes some wonderful photographs: http://ddmayers.tumblr.com/
An additional layer of interest for me was D.D. Mayers’ social class. He is not a boastful man, but he is definitely used to living in a manner to which most of us are not accustomed. This meant that the book gave me a glimpse into the upperclasses that I would otherwise not have had.
A strength of this book is Mayers’ brutal honesty about his paralysis – how it affected him mentally and also the physical challenges that he faces. I’ve read other accounts of people’s lives after serious accidents and they tend to be relentlessly upbeat about how they went on to achieve bigger and better things than they thought possible before their disability, so it’s refreshing to read something that gives stark facts.
A minor criticism of this book is that I wanted to know a little more about the author – the reader only learns that he is ‘D.D. Mayers’. I wanted to know his first name, or at least whether he is known as ‘D.D.’ to his friends. Finally, Mayers frequently describes his wife as ‘little woman’, which does not sit well with my modern feminist views… however, he does clearly state that it is his term of endearment of her and is not intended to be offensive. I’m not sure that makes it acceptable, but at times it is important to recognise that different generations can have very different viewpoints.
Overall, I found this book really interesting. Once I started reading it, I didn’t want to put it down (so much so that I was late for work one morning – oops!) There is so much more that I could say about Mayers’ autobiograpy, but I don’t want to write any spoilers, so I’d urge you to get a copy and find out for yourself!
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