I am honored to introduce to you Lorraine Moller who has been my friend and running partner for over 34 years. Running her first international competition when she was only sixteen, Lorraine has gone on to rack up an impressive list of accomplishments including:
- Ran in four Olympics, placing 5th in her first Olympics in 1984 and winning a bronze medal in Barcelona in 1992.
- Won the first Avon Women’s International Marathon (which became the precursor to the London Marathon)
- Won the Boston Marathon
- Won sixteen international marathons
- Won three World Championships
Read Lorraine’s incredible story of how she pioneered the women’s revolution of running and how now might be a good time to take a break, look inside, and reconnect with our Mother Earth. Below, she shares some story and wisdom.
Mother’s Day – Hindsight is 2020
It was almost 40 years ago that I ran the Avon Women’s Marathon in London, the unofficial world championship. Unofficial because the powers-that-be didn’t believe women had the physical strength to warrant such an event on their racing calendar. That race was a showcase to lobby for inclusion of the marathon for women in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.
When I lined up that day with women marathoners gathered from all around the world, I recall that collective feeling of being renegade, that feeling of courage that gives rise to a resoluteness to the task ahead. Even though it was my first serious attempt at racing a marathon and I had no experience of taking drinks on the run on this 75-degree day and I was wearing last-minute borrowed shoes, I was nevertheless undaunted. The wave of enthusiasm inside about being a part of this historic event carried me past all obstacles and beyond. I figured that once I was there, I might as well see if I could win the thing, and I did.
The rest is history. The women’s marathon became a part of the Olympic menu, and I went on to enjoy four Olympic Games and even a place on the podium. Women from around the world flocked to distance running until they outnumbered their male participants.
Now that I look back, I have gratitude for all the times I put my fear aside and took the risk of following my sense of adventure into new territory. If I and those 80 other women had not shown up that day and done the outrageous thing of running around bare-legged in the streets of London, perhaps many other young women would not be enjoying the freedom of long-distance running to the extent they do today. And I might not have had all those magnificent Olympic experiences.
2020 is a big year for all of us in ways we could not have foreseen. We find ourselves at a different threshold: a time to face our deepest fears. Like everyone I have gone to some dark places thinking of the worst that can come down the pipeline on the heels of COVID-19, mostly a fear of the loss of freedom to move around as I so love to do.
While I recall a tide of great change for women 40 years ago, and how far we came to take our place on every world stage, I also see that we may our efforts may have helped to redirect our society into a narcissistic bunch rushing around on the brink of adrenal exhaustion, stuck to phones trying to do a deal while they frenetically chase the American Dream. In the meantime, we have produced the first generation of children who have such poor lifestyle habits that they have a life expectancy less than that of their parents. While we women were out competing for our equal rights who was tending the hearth?
So, we come to a sudden standstill, worldwide. Did the world’s guardian angel stop the globe spinning for a time-out? Time-out to face our deepest fears: our fear of death? Our fear of illness? Our fear of loss? Our fear of intimacy? Our fear of looking inside and finding that after all the ways we strive to pat ourselves on the back and build ourselves up, we might find that underneath it all that we are inadequate? Were these fears that we buried while we were running around being busy weaving their way into the foundation of our society?
I think so. We’ve come so far, but far enough. There was a time to break barriers and be a heroine, but that time has passed and the time to sit still a while has come. Long enough to change directions and rather than continually looking up for bigger and better things, to look down and reconnect to the natural world, our Mother, and give her gratitude. Let’s take this pause and figure out a way to take the best we have – all our sciences, techniques, knowledge, inventions, and other precious works – and mix them into a big bucket of love and serve up a wonderful rich life-giving new world to those who follow us.
Want more? Listen to Lorraine and I talk more about her accomplishments, stories from our past, and what is happening to our earth today here:
Plus, Quest members be sure to join us for a Q&A discussion on Self Mastery with Lorraine on May 14th at 6:00pm (MDT).
Take Lorraine’s Lydiard Coach Certification Course: ONLINE Lydiard Coaches Certification May 8, 2020
Not yet a Quest member? Join us for virtual classes, events, gatherings, and more at womensquest.com/thequest.