What inspires someone to get up and decide to train for a marathon? While every runner has their reasons, one woman's motivation is so simple and beautiful that it's moving thousands of people.
Humans of New York recently shared a touching quote from an unnamed 47-year-old woman who's currently training for a marathon [1]. She said her recent birthday caused her to really reflect on her life. "I'm noticing that my younger colleagues are more adventurous and take more risks — either because they don't know about failure or they don't care," she said, adding, "As I get older, I feel like more and more of my life is outside my control."
Training for the marathon, however, has given her back some control. "I can't control current events. I can't control politics. I can't even control my personal relationships," she said. "But I can control my legs. I can put one leg in front of the other. I can decide the miles that I run each day, each week, each month. And it feels great. I get a rush every time I make it to the top of a hill."
Within a few hours of it being posted, the inspirational post amassed over 140,000 "likes" on Instagram and 70,000 reactions on Facebook, proving how deeply her wise words are resonating with people.