Ryan Shay-because his last name is my first.

Ryan Shay chased an olympic dream, yet his dream was cut short by an early death (refer to Steve Prefonatine). Shay ran in a similar manner as Pre: without constraint. Thus, it is no surprise that Shay had high hopes of bringing back a gold medal for the marathon in the 2008 olympics. At 28 years old, Shay had recently married Alicia Craig, 10,000m star runner; his life was just getting started. Yet, his life and olypmic dream were cut short by his sudden death during the Men's Marathon Olypmic Trials in New York City. He collapsed at mile 5 and was pronouced dead at 8:46 am.
I post Shay's story, not because his last name is my first, but because few achieve greatness out of fear that we are powerful beyond measure. It is stories of runners like Shay that give me a burst of passion about running and life.
Here's a quote about Shay from Luke Watson, Ryan's former teammate and roommate at Notre Dame:
"In all of our days at Notre Dame, I don't remember Ryan ever doing a run that I would call easy. I would doubt if there was ever a run he did at ND that averaged over 6:00/mile pace. In his pro career, Ryan did learn to run easy, but I don't think he liked it. He knew one style of running: fast and hard."