Hillary Allen’s story of survival against all odds.
Hillary Allen is for sure someone I’d love to encounter in my imaginary (trail running) shelter I have mentioned in the introduction of this website. Smart, brave and dynamic (what I mean with dynamic isn’t the obvious fact that she’s doing a lot of sports and is an active person, but that she takes action to make things change, or to make things happen), with a lot of stories to tell and lessons to teach. Even though I don’t know her personally, what I see through social media is a person who conveys happiness and a positive mindset. Through her book I also discovered an extremely strong competitive attitude which most of us could only dream of having.
I would like to start talking about this book by saying “WE”, as trailrunners, but I think the gap between recreational athletes like me and professional athletes like Hillary is so big that I do not even consider it the same sport. But I still think WE have a lot in common and probably the biggest weakness that stands out in most of us is… Patience…
I’m not sure if this weakness is caused by running, or if it is something that leads us to running. We tend to want everything and want it immediately. We’re used to savor the most beautiful landscapes in the world, in a much shorter time than everyone else, and we always want more.
In her book, Hillary explains perfectly how she is forced, because of one of the scariest falls & injury in running history, to face that weakness. And she transforms that weakness into one of her biggest strengths. By learning to slow down, proceeding step by step, bit by bit. The path she takes isn’t a recovery to become the person she was before the accident, but a transformation into someone new, someone better, and stronger.
Since I don’t want to unveil too much of this book, I only want to say that what you’ll learn from Hillary’s story is that life is a strange race. You’ll get trough highs, and through lows, but you’ll learn to accept those lows, and learn a lesson from each one of those darkest moments. You’ll learn to cope with the lows that are yet to come, you’ll fight your fears, and you’ll probably find an easier and faster way out with time and this process will take your highs to a whole new level.
I wish you all a good reading of this book. Read it as a story, use it as a guide, share it as a gift.