Run, Patti, Run !

by Mark V. Hansen翻譯：范婕

Run, Patti, Run !

by Mark V. Hansen翻譯：范婕

對大多數人來說，跑步便是最簡單的運動。但對于那些身體不便的人來說，他們要“突破自我”才能跑起來。可即便是這樣，他們也一直在不懈地努力著，希望能夠突破自己的極限。那么，身體健康的我們又怎能落后呢？一起來嘗試突破自己吧！

At a young age, Patti Wilson was told by her doctor that she was an1)epileptic. Her father, Jim Wilson, is a morning2)jogger. One day, she smiled through her teenage3)braces and said, “Daddy, what I’d really love to do is run with you every day, but I’m afraid I’ll have a4)seizure.” Her father told her, “If you do, I know how to handle it, so let’s start running!”

That’s just what they did every day. It was a wonderful experience for them to share and there were no seizures at all while she was running. After a few weeks, she told her father, “Daddy, what I’d really love to do is break the world’s long-distance running5)record for women.” Her father checked the Guinness World Records注1and found that the farthest any woman had run was 80 miles.

As a freshman in high school, Patti announced, “I’m going to run from Orange County注2up to San Francisco.” (A distance of 400 miles.) “As a6)sophomore,” she went on, “I’m going to run to Portland注3, Oregon注4.” (Over 1,500 miles.) “As a7)junior, I’ll run to St. Louis注5.” (About 2,000 miles.) “As a8)senior, I’ll run to The White House注6.” (More than 3,000 miles away.)

In view of her9)handicap, Patti was as10)ambitious as she was11)enthusiastic, but she said she looked at the handicap of being an epileptic as simply “an inconvenience.” She focused not on what she had lost, but on what she had left.

That year she completed her run to San Francisco wearing a T-shirt that read, “I Love Epileptics.” Her dad ran every mile at her side, and her mom, a nurse, followed in a12)motor home behind them in case anything went wrong. In her sophomore year, Patti’s classmates got behind her. They built a giant poster that read— “Run, Patti, Run!”

On her second13)marathon, a doctor told her she had to stop her run. He said, “I’ve got to put a14)cast on your15)ankle so that you don’t16)sustain17)permanent damage.”

“Doc, you don’t understand,” she said. “This isn’t just a18)whim of mine, it’s a19)magnifcent20)obsession! I’m not just doing it for me, I’m doing it to break the21)chains on the brains that limit so many others. Isn’t there a way I can keep running?” He gave her one22)option, he could wrap it in23)adhesive instead of putting it in a cast. He warned her that it would be24)incredibly painful, and he told her, “It will25)blister.” She told the doctor to wrap it up.

She finished the run to Portland, completing her last mile with the26)governor of Oregon. You may have seen the headlines—“Super Runner, Patti Wilson Ends Marathon for Epilepsy on Her 17thBirthday.” After four months of almost continuous running from the West Coast to the East Coast, Patti arrived in Washington and shook the hand of the President of the United States. She told him, “I wanted people to know that epileptics are normal human beings with normal lives.”

I told this story at one of my27)seminars not long ago, and afterward a man came up to me, stuck out his hand and said, “Mark, my name is Jim Wilson. You were talking about my daughter, Patti.” Because of her28)noble efforts, he told me, enough money had been raised to open up 19 multi-million-dollar epileptic centers around the country. If Patti Wilson can do so much with so little, what can you do to29)outperform yourself in a state of total wellness?

1) epileptic [,ep?'lept?k] n. 癲癇患者

2) jogger ['d??g?] n. 慢跑者

3) braces [b're?s?z] n.（常復）畸齒矯正鋼絲架

4) seizure ['si???] n.（疾病的）突然發作

5) record ['rek??d] n.紀錄

6) sophomore ['s?f?m??] n.（美國四年制大學或中學的）二年級生

7) junior ['d?u?n??] n. 三年級生

8) senior ['si?n??] n. 畢業生

9) handicap ['h?nd?k?p] n. 障礙

10) ambitious [?m'b???s] adj. 有雄心的，有志氣的

11) enthusiastic [?n,θju?z?'?st?k] adj. 滿腔熱情的

12) motor home 房車

13) marathon ['m?r?θ?n] n. 馬拉松賽跑

14) cast [kα?st] n. 石膏夾

15) ankle ['??kl] n. 踝關節

16) sustain [s?s'te?n] v. 承受，忍受

17) permanent ['p??m?n?nt] adj. 永久的

18) whim [w?m] n. 一時的興致，心血來潮

19) magnifcent [m?g'n?f?snt] adj. 宏大的

20) obsession [?b'se??n] n. 著迷

21) chain [t?e?n] n.（常作～s）枷鎖，束縛

22) option ['?p??n] n. 選項，選擇

23) adhesive [?d'hi?s?v] n. 膠粘劑

24) incredibly [?n'kred?bl?] adv. 難以置信地

25) blister ['bl?st?] v. 起水皰

26) governor ['g?v?n?] n.（美國的）州長

27) seminar ['sem?nα?] n. 研討會

28) noble ['n??bl] adj. 高尚的，崇高的

29) outperform [,a?tp?'f??m] v. 做得比……好，勝過

注1:《吉尼斯世界紀錄大全》（Guinness World Records），1955年問世，是一本對人類、動植物王國、自然界、宇宙與空間、科學世界、藝術與娛樂、世界建筑、機械世界、商業世界、人類世界、人類成就，以及體育、游戲與游藝等12個部分的“世界之最”紀錄大全。

注2: 奧蘭治縣（Orange County），美國加利福尼亞州的一個縣。

注3: 波特蘭（Portland），美國俄勒岡州最大的城市。

注4: 俄勒岡州（Oregon），美國西北太平洋沿岸的一個州。

注5: 圣路易斯（St. Louis），美國密蘇里州東部大城市。

注6: 白宮（The White House），位于美國華盛頓。它是一幢白色的新古典風格砂巖建筑物，是美國總統居住和辦公的地方。“白宮”一詞也常代指美國政府。

很小的時候，醫生就告訴帕蒂·威爾森說，她是一名癲癇患者。她的父親吉姆·威爾森是一個喜歡在晨間慢跑的人。一天，已長成少女的帕蒂微笑著露出牙箍說，“爸爸，我最想做的就是每天和你一起跑步，但我擔心癲癇會發作。”父親告訴她說，“如果你真的想和我一起跑，就算癲癇發作了，我也知道該怎么處理。我們就一起跑吧！”

于是父女倆就這樣開始每天跑步。這是他倆之間的一段美好經歷，而她跑步的時候，癲癇一次都沒有發作過。幾周后，她對父親說，“爸爸，我非常希望可以打破女子長跑的世界紀錄。”她父親在《吉尼斯世界紀錄大全》上查到女子長跑的最遠距離是80英里。

高中一年級時，帕蒂就向大家宣布，“我要從奧蘭治縣跑到舊金山（400英里）。”“到高中第二年，”她繼續說，“我要跑到俄勒岡州的波特蘭（超過1500英里）。”“到高中第三年，我要跑到圣路易斯（大約2000英里）。”“等到畢業那年，我要跑到白宮（3000英里開外）。”

考慮到帕蒂身體上的不便，她算得上是既有雄心又有激情，可她卻說自己只把癲癇看作是身體上小小的“不便”。她看重的是自己所擁有的東西，而不是那些失去的。

那年她穿著印有“我愛癲癇”字樣的T恤完成了目的地為舊金山的長跑。她的父親全程都在陪跑，而身為護士的母親則開著房車緊隨其后，以防有任何情況發生。高中二年級的時候，帕蒂得到了同學們的支持和鼓勵。他們做了一張大大的海報，上面寫著：“奔跑吧，帕蒂！”

在她開始準備第二次長跑時，醫生告訴帕蒂，她不能再跑了。醫生說，“為了避免永久性損傷，我必須在你的踝關節處打上石膏。”

“醫生，你不明白，”她說。“這不是我一時的心血來潮，它是一種強烈的渴望！我奔跑不僅是為了我自己，更是為了去打破一種制約著很多人的心理束縛。難道就沒有什么辦法能讓我繼續奔跑嗎？”醫生提出了一個選擇方案。他可以用一種醫用膠粘劑把踝關節包起來，那就不需要打石膏了。醫生提醒她說，這種方法會引起劇烈的疼痛，他還告訴她，“皮膚會起皰的。”帕蒂還是請醫生把她的踝關節包起來。

她完成了目的地為波特蘭的長跑，還和俄勒岡州州長共同完成了最后一英里。你可能已經在報紙上讀到過這樣一條標題—“超級跑者—帕蒂·威爾森在十七歲生日完成了‘癲癇病公益長跑’”。從美國的西海岸到東海岸，帕蒂幾乎連續奔跑了四個月，最終到達華盛頓，還與美國總統握手致意。她對總統說，“我想讓人們知道，癲癇患者同樣是過著正常生活的普通人。”

在不久前的一次研討會上，我講了這個故事。會后有一位男士走過來，和我握手并對我說，“馬克，我叫吉姆·威爾森。你剛剛講的正是我的女兒帕蒂。”他告訴我，因為帕蒂不懈的努力，她成功地募集了大量的善款，足以在全國范圍內建立19個價值數百萬美元的癲癇診療中心。倘若帕蒂·威爾森在身體條件如此受限的情況下都能做出這般成就，那么身體健康的你是不是也能做點什么來突破自己呢？