Dewdrops In The Garden

Elite athletes are highly appreciated for their dominating stamina and endurance.  With a higher lactate threshold than most, Lance Armstrong (scandals aside) kills his competition time and time again.  While these athletes work hard to compete and win, it almost comes natural to them, as if they were just built for it. 

Dave and I went on a lengthy run this weekend, and by the end he was spent … completely exhausted.  Being the brat that I am, I proceeded to make fun of him because I felt fine (jokingly, of course).   But there is one thing I did not think of:  he has allergies and asthma. 

This got me thinking about athletes that compete with asthma and allergies.  It can’t be an easy task to perform athletically when breathing can be a task in and of itself.  I have no idea what it’s like growing up with asthma or allergies and dealing with that day in and day out.  The closest I have come to feeling their pain during exercise was when I was pregnant.  During this time, the workouts that I normally could do without any effort took a lot more energy as my heart rate crept up faster.  It was tough, but I could still not empathize.

In researching this topic, I came across an article discussing asthma and exercise.  It includes a list of professional athletes who have excelled inspite of their asthma (they include an Olympic swimmer who swam with friends of Dave at CSU).

Like elite athletes, I think these athletes ought to be appreciated in the same way, if not more.   I am inspired by the effort they put forth to exercise.  A job very well done, Dave!  I promise to never make fun of you again.