跑,派蒂,跑

At a young and tender age， Patti Wilson was told by her doctor that she was an epileptic. Her father， Jim Wilson， is a morning jogger. One day she smiled through her braces and said， “Daddy， what I’d really love to do is to run with you every day， but I’m afraid I’ll have a 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 to break the world’s long-distance running record for women.”

Her father checked the “Guinness Book of World Records” and 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 up to San Francisco. （A distance of 400 miles.） ” “As a sophomore，” she went on， “I’m going to run to Portland， Oregon. （Over 1，500 miles.） As a junior， I’ll run to St. Louis. （About 2，000 miles.） As a senior， I’ll run to the White House. （More than 3，000 miles away.）”

In view of her handicap， Patti was as ambitious as she was 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 a 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 second marathon， during the way to Portland， she fractured a bone in her foot. A doctor told her she had to stop her run. He said， “I’ve got to put a cast on your ankle so that you don’t sustain permanent damage.”

“Doctor， you don’t understand，” she said. “This isn’t just a whim of mine; it’s a magnificent obsession！ I’m not just doing it for me. I’m doing it to break the chains on the brains that limit so many others. Isn’t there a way I can keep running？” He gave her one option. He could wrap it in adhesive instead of putting it in a cast. He warned her that it would be incredibly painful， and he told her， “It will blister.” She told the doctor to wrap it up.

She finished the run to Portland， completing her last mile with the governor of Oregon. You may have seen the headlines： “Super Runner， Patti Wilson Ends Marathon For Epilepsy On Her 17th Birthday”.

After four months of almost continuous running from West Coast to the East Coast， Patti arrived in Washington and shook the hand of the President of United States. She told him， “I wanted people to know that epileptics are normal human beings with normal lives.”

Because of Patti’s noble efforts， enough money had been raised to open up 19 multi-million-dollar epileptic centers around the country.

派蒂・威尔逊很小的时候，医生告诉她，她患有癫痫。她的爸爸吉姆・威尔逊喜欢晨跑。一天，她透过矫形器笑着对他说：“爸爸，我真希望每天都能和你一起跑步，可我怕我会突然发病。”爸爸告诉她：“就算你真的发病了，我也知道该怎么处理，所以，我们一起跑步吧！”

从此，他们每天都去晨跑。这对他们来说是非常美好的经历，她在跑步时也从没有发过病。几个星期后，她跟爸爸说：“爸爸，我最想做的就是打破世界女子长跑纪录。”

爸爸查看了《吉尼斯世界纪录》，发现女性跑的最长距离是129千米。作为一个高中一年级的学生，派蒂宣称：“我要从橘子郡跑到旧金山（约634千米）。”“等到二年级，”她继续说，“我要跑到俄勒冈州的波特兰（约2 414千米）。到三年级，我要跑到圣路易斯（约3 219千米）。到四年级，我要跑到白宫（约4 828千米）。”

尽管派蒂有不便之处，她还是雄心勃勃，热情高涨。她说，她只是将癫痫这个障碍视为“一个麻烦”。她将注意力放在她能做的事情上，而不是在她的缺陷上。

那一年，她穿着一件上面写着“我爱癫痫”的T恤，跑到了旧金山。爸爸陪同她跑完全程，当护士的母亲待在跟在他们后面的一辆房车中，以防万一。

二年级那年，派蒂的同学给了她很大的支持，他们制作了一个巨幅海报，上面写着：“跑，派蒂，跑！”在跑向波特兰的路上，她摔断了脚上的一根骨头。医生告诫她，她必须停止跑步。还说：“我得在你的脚踝关节上铸上石膏模，这样就不会留下后遗症。”

“医生，你不知道。”她说，“跑步并不是我一时的兴致，而是一种近乎疯狂的着迷！我这么做不只是为我自己，而是为了打破限制其他人思想的枷锁。有没有办法让我继续跑步？”医生给了她一个选择，可以用绷带代替石膏模把脚踝包扎起来。医生提醒她，这样会非常痛，还会起泡，但她仍坚持用绷带包扎。

她还是跑到了波特兰，俄勒冈州州长和她一起完成了最后的1.6千米。你也许在媒体头条中见过这样的标题――“跑步超人派蒂・威尔逊17岁生日这天完成了她对抗癫痫的长跑”。

四个月的长跑中，派蒂几乎没有间断过，从西海岸跑到东海岸，最后她到达了华盛顿，并与美国总统握手。她告诉总统：“我希望人们知道癫痫患者也是正常人，也可以有正常的生活。”

因为派蒂的努力，全国上下筹集了数百万美元，并兴建了19个癫痫治疗中心。