Upside by Jim Rendon

Author:Jim Rendon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Touchstone

A Problem-Solving Attitude

On the day of the Austin Marathon, runner after runner rounded the last corner at the steps leading up to the Texas Capitol and turned toward downtown, covering the last few blocks to the finish line. Each person’s face was contorted in its own way, but each expressed the same thing—excruciating pain and incredible willpower, as if the right contorted grimace were the only means left to keep their dead legs moving. Some athletes limped along, barely making it; others pushed themselves to a full sprint, a last, desperate lunge to finish the race. And then came Cotcher. He’s tall, at six feet one, and his stride is long. As he turned the corner and bore down on the finish, little changed. He ran with a powerful and even stride. As he covered the final yards before the finish, the struggling runners around Cotcher looked like their brain stems had been mangled, while he was a picture of poised running technique.

That’s remarkable. Five years earlier, he could barely walk and staggered like a wildly drunk man when he did. But Cotcher was used to being athletic and exercising. And the more he exercised the faster he could recuperate. His doctors encouraged him to shuffle, walk, and eventually run. When he taught himself to jog again he did it at the golf course behind his town house. It wasn’t because of the scenery, but because he fell down so often that he needed to practice somewhere with a soft place to land. He didn’t view his total lack of balance and coordination as a chasm impeding his ability to run. Instead he saw it as a logistical challenge. If he was going to fall down when he ran, he’d better find a place to do it with a soft landing. The golf course’s well-maintained greens were perfect.

Cotcher approached running with the same level of focus, dedication, and patience that he applied to his rehabilitation. He began by entering small local races, going as far as he could before walking. The first time he ran a full race was in 2011. A picture of him crossing the finish line of the 5K hangs on the wall of his apartment outside Austin. In early 2012 he started thinking about running a marathon—an incredible mental feat of optimism and confidence given how hard running was for him.

As he started to train, Cotcher discovered another problem. With each stride, he uncontrollably slammed his left foot to the ground. He began to worry that he’d wreck his knee or his hip and wind up with even more problems. His left side had been partially paralyzed after his surgery and though it had recovered significantly, it was not 100 percent. After talking with doctors and a running coach, he discovered the problem. His brain didn’t know where his foot was in relation to the ground. He could fix the problem, but only if he focused his attention on where his feet were and where the ground was on each and every stride.

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