Run, Patti, Run !

by Mark V. Hansen翻译：范婕

Run, Patti, Run !

by Mark V. Hansen翻译：范婕

对大多数人来说，跑步便是最简单的运动。但对于那些身体不便的人来说，他们要“突破自我”才能跑起来。可即便是这样，他们也一直在不懈地努力着，希望能够突破自己的极限。那么，身体健康的我们又怎能落后呢？一起来尝试突破自己吧！

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 [,epɪ'leptɪk] n. 癫痫患者

2) jogger ['dʒɒgə] n. 慢跑者

3) braces [b'reɪsɪz] n.（常复）畸齿矫正钢丝架

4) seizure ['siːʒə] n.（疾病的）突然发作

5) record ['rekɔːd] n.纪录

6) sophomore ['sɒfəmɔː] n.（美国四年制大学或中学的）二年级生

7) junior ['dʒuːnɪə] n. 三年级生

8) senior ['siːnɪə] n. 毕业生

9) handicap ['hændɪkæp] n. 障碍

10) ambitious [æm'bɪʃəs] adj. 有雄心的，有志气的

11) enthusiastic [ɪn,θjuːzɪ'æstɪk] adj. 满腔热情的

12) motor home 房车

13) marathon ['mærəθən] n. 马拉松赛跑

14) cast [kαːst] n. 石膏夹

15) ankle ['æŋkl] n. 踝关节

16) sustain [səs'teɪn] v. 承受，忍受

17) permanent ['pʒːmənənt] adj. 永久的

18) whim [wɪm] n. 一时的兴致，心血来潮

19) magnifcent [mæg'nɪfɪsnt] adj. 宏大的

20) obsession [əb'seʃən] n. 着迷

21) chain [tʃeɪn] n.（常作～s）枷锁，束缚

22) option ['ɒpʃən] n. 选项，选择

23) adhesive [əd'hiːsɪv] n. 胶粘剂

24) incredibly [ɪn'kredɪblɪ] adv. 难以置信地

25) blister ['blɪstə] v. 起水疱

26) governor ['gʌvənə] n.（美国的）州长

27) seminar ['semɪnαː] n. 研讨会

28) noble ['nəʊbl] adj. 高尚的，崇高的

29) outperform [,aʊtpə'fɔːm] v. 做得比……好，胜过

注1:《吉尼斯世界纪录大全》（Guinness World Records），1955年问世，是一本对人类、动植物王国、自然界、宇宙与空间、科学世界、艺术与娱乐、世界建筑、机械世界、商业世界、人类世界、人类成就，以及体育、游戏与游艺等12个部分的“世界之最”纪录大全。

注2: 奥兰治县（Orange County），美国加利福尼亚州的一个县。

注3: 波特兰（Portland），美国俄勒冈州最大的城市。

注4: 俄勒冈州（Oregon），美国西北太平洋沿岸的一个州。

注5: 圣路易斯（St. Louis），美国密苏里州东部大城市。

注6: 白宫（The White House），位于美国华盛顿。它是一幢白色的新古典风格砂岩建筑物，是美国总统居住和办公的地方。“白宫”一词也常代指美国政府。

很小的时候，医生就告诉帕蒂·威尔森说，她是一名癫痫患者。她的父亲吉姆·威尔森是一个喜欢在晨间慢跑的人。一天，已长成少女的帕蒂微笑着露出牙箍说，“爸爸，我最想做的就是每天和你一起跑步，但我担心癫痫会发作。”父亲告诉她说，“如果你真的想和我一起跑，就算癫痫发作了，我也知道该怎么处理。我们就一起跑吧！”

于是父女俩就这样开始每天跑步。这是他俩之间的一段美好经历，而她跑步的时候，癫痫一次都没有发作过。几周后，她对父亲说，“爸爸，我非常希望可以打破女子长跑的世界纪录。”她父亲在《吉尼斯世界纪录大全》上查到女子长跑的最远距离是80英里。

高中一年级时，帕蒂就向大家宣布，“我要从奥兰治县跑到旧金山（400英里）。”“到高中第二年，”她继续说，“我要跑到俄勒冈州的波特兰（超过1500英里）。”“到高中第三年，我要跑到圣路易斯（大约2000英里）。”“等到毕业那年，我要跑到白宫（3000英里开外）。”

考虑到帕蒂身体上的不便，她算得上是既有雄心又有激情，可她却说自己只把癫痫看作是身体上小小的“不便”。她看重的是自己所拥有的东西，而不是那些失去的。

那年她穿着印有“我爱癫痫”字样的T恤完成了目的地为旧金山的长跑。她的父亲全程都在陪跑，而身为护士的母亲则开着房车紧随其后，以防有任何情况发生。高中二年级的时候，帕蒂得到了同学们的支持和鼓励。他们做了一张大大的海报，上面写着：“奔跑吧，帕蒂！”

在她开始准备第二次长跑时，医生告诉帕蒂，她不能再跑了。医生说，“为了避免永久性损伤，我必须在你的踝关节处打上石膏。”

“医生，你不明白，”她说。“这不是我一时的心血来潮，它是一种强烈的渴望！我奔跑不仅是为了我自己，更是为了去打破一种制约着很多人的心理束缚。难道就没有什么办法能让我继续奔跑吗？”医生提出了一个选择方案。他可以用一种医用胶粘剂把踝关节包起来，那就不需要打石膏了。医生提醒她说，这种方法会引起剧烈的疼痛，他还告诉她，“皮肤会起疱的。”帕蒂还是请医生把她的踝关节包起来。

她完成了目的地为波特兰的长跑，还和俄勒冈州州长共同完成了最后一英里。你可能已经在报纸上读到过这样一条标题—“超级跑者—帕蒂·威尔森在十七岁生日完成了‘癫痫病公益长跑’”。从美国的西海岸到东海岸，帕蒂几乎连续奔跑了四个月，最终到达华盛顿，还与美国总统握手致意。她对总统说，“我想让人们知道，癫痫患者同样是过着正常生活的普通人。”

在不久前的一次研讨会上，我讲了这个故事。会后有一位男士走过来，和我握手并对我说，“马克，我叫吉姆·威尔森。你刚刚讲的正是我的女儿帕蒂。”他告诉我，因为帕蒂不懈的努力，她成功地募集了大量的善款，足以在全国范围内建立19个价值数百万美元的癫痫诊疗中心。倘若帕蒂·威尔森在身体条件如此受限的情况下都能做出这般成就，那么身体健康的你是不是也能做点什么来突破自己呢？