The innocent bystander
By Alison Colavecchia
6.25.01 (www.slowtwitch.com)

Prior to writing for Slowtwitch, I read every single piece that the site had posted. One of my favourites is Amy White's piece entitled Emeril and Me. If you haven't read it, you ought to. It got me to thinking about a number of things, including the need to have a voice in our heads that encourages, even beckons, us to push ourselves simply because we can.

This piece also got me to thinking about who travels with me when I am swimming, cycling and running. I am fortunate to know and have in my life many wonderful and inspiring individuals who––when I think of them––immediately quicken my pace or bring a smile to my face.

However, there is one voice that has been a beacon through the darker alleys of my beginnings, a voice that is able to put words to the places my mind and body travel as I swim, bike and run, a voice that provides a rationale for this journey of mine in ways that I am not yet fully capable of. This voice doesn't just keep me company, it inspires and welcomes me into the sporting world as an athlete no matter my place in the pack or speed. It is the voice of Dr. George Sheehan.

I never met Dr. George, as I fondly think of him. If you have never read any of his writings, I recommend them—he is a treasure. He passed away in November 1993 after a battle with prostate cancer. He was a father of 12, a cardiologist, and returned to running at age 45. His writing career began with a column entitled "The Innocent Bystander" in 1968. In his lifetime he also did a few triathlons.

Most of all, though, he was a writer and a prolific reader. He left behind a written legacy––a journal of his rebirth through running. His mind, and his capacity to put words to the experience of running and to a sporting life, still amaze me. I am truly in awe of his ability to weave his running experience into the fabric of everyday life. How could you not take in someone who believes that we are our own heroes and in no need of looking further––that within each of us is the innate capacity to be "an artist, a child, a hero and a saint" if we simply learn to play?

My favourite book is entitled Running and Being: The Total Experience (1978). Whenever I am stumped, need inspiration, or feel overburdened, I turn to this book. I close my eyes and let the book open to where in my heart I believe the message will come for the day. When I open my eyes, there before me is the thinking of a great philosopher and the thinking of a man able to translate the most complex of topics into the language of everyman or -woman.

Some days it opens to a page already folded or dog-eared; other days it is a fresh page that I am less familiar with. On one page I am running the last few blocks of the Boston Marathon, imagining Dr. Sheehan's handkerchief flapping in the air above his head as he works his way to the finish line. On another page I am contemplating, at Dr. Sheehan's nudging, the ideas of Thomas Merton, who spoke of freedom as the liberation not from the body but rather from the mind. On yet another page I am asked to think about myself and my life not as a series of achievements but rather as an opportunity to become my own perfect self through play.

Indeed, it is this message of play that led me to write and led me to forge ahead with my involvement with triathlons. Dr. Sheehan says, "…heed the inner calling to your own play. Listen if you can to the person you were and are and can be. Then do what you do best and feel best at. Something that you would do for nothing. Something that gives you security and self-acceptance and a feeling of completion; even moments when you are fused with your universe and your Creator. When you find it, build your life around it." (p.77).

Thanks, Dr. Sheehan…