Amparo Atencio

This article was originally published in “We Need Not Walk Alone,” the national magazine of The Compassionate Friends.


The culmination of all the training runs…the throng of like-minded people…the crack of the starting pistol…ah, race day jitters! Nothing could motivate me more than the start of a 5K, 10K, half-marathon, or triathlon back in the day. That was then. Back then, I never looked up. I never noticed the blueness of the sky. I never noticed the vastness of the stars. I never paid attention to the sun rise. I never saw the craters of the moon. That was then. (more…)