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Pressing On Toward the Goal

Run, Denise, Run!

This past Monday I ran a half marathon. I'm pretty sure this qualifies as an actual miracle.

Most of you don't know me personally, so you don't really understand why this is such a big deal. I hate running. It is difficult and horrible and painful. When I started training at the beginning of the summer, my lungs would scream in burning agony after about ten steps. There is no way on earth you will ever be able to run 13 miles, they told me. I just didn't think it was possible.

Slowly I worked my way up to five miles. Still excruciating the whole way, but I was able to finish without vomiting, hooray!

And on Monday I ran those 13.1 miles without stopping once. I finished the race and accomplished my goal. It was painful and difficult, but I did it.

But, why on earth did you run a half marathon if you hate all things related to running? you ask. Very good question. I'm still not quite sure. I think I wanted to do it because I never believed that I could. I didn't think it was possible for my body to run that many miles. And because I wasn't sure that I would be able do it, I set this goal — I wanted to prove to myself that I could.

So what did I learn from running nearly 200 miles as I trained this summer? I'll tell you right now … hold on … let me catch my breath …

Relient K* and Me — We're All About Pressing On

OK, here we go. Obviously much of running is about perseverance. My body would often tell me that it wanted to give up sometime in the first mile (my body is pretty lazy). But unfortunately, my training schedule said I had quite a few left to go. I would have to convince myself to keep going. I also noticed that, for me, running is mostly mental. There were obviously aches and pains and issues with a fatigued body, but my biggest challenge was a mind that was ready to give up. I learned that if I told myself I could keep going, then I could. If I told myself that I could finish those eight miles without stopping to walk, then I would. It was really interesting to realize that so much of what I was doing had to do with my attitude about it.

This realization that so much of my running was mental has implications for the rest of my life. So much of the way our lives turn out is based on the choices we make. We can decide to exercise or we can decide to take a nap. We can decide to love one another or we can decide to be selfish. We make choices — decisions — and those decisions will either get us further down the road or hinder us.

It may sound corny, but running so much this summer and "pressing on toward the goal" showed me that the rest of my life is very similar. I can grow in my relationship with the Lord if I make the effort. If not, I won't. Plain and simple.

The Discipline of Discipline

I cannot even count the number of times I would finish a day of work and debate between running my scheduled five miles or going home to take a nap. It was very difficult for me to put on my running shorts and pull out my iPod every day. However (the majority of the time) I would ignore the lure of my bed and head out into the summer heat to sweat my life away. Honestly, it took a lot of discipline. I had to stick with my training schedule and look toward my end-of-the-summer goal. As my runs grew longer, I had to remind myself that I was going to really appreciate what I'd done when I crossed the finish line of the half marathon.

If only I were this disciplined in my relationship with the Lord. As I've huffed and puffed my way through the long miles, I've felt convicted about the lack of a disciplined attitude when it comes to spending intentional time in Bible study and prayer. My days get filled up quite quickly, and I have come to the realization that the best way for me to be consistent with devotions would be to do them before I go to work. Which means getting up. Early. Not sleeping as much.

Again, I'm not sure that you folks grasp what this means for me. Sleep is one of my very favorite things to do. I rarely get to work early on time, because it is so extremely difficult for me to get up when my alarm goes off.

But now I've been basically left without excuse. If I can discipline myself enough to run multiple miles each week, I can certainly drag myself out of bed a few minutes earlier each morning.

I really do believe that discipline in our spiritual lives is another way we can show God that we're serious about Him and what we say we believe. As I've discussed with you before, to the biblical writers faith was displayed by what you did. I can sit and talk about my love for God and His work in my life, but if I don't spend time with Him and learn His words, some of that talk rings hollow.

Gatorade®: Is It In You?

Let's see, what else did I learn. Oh yes, I learned that Gatorade® is super helpful when running. More so than just water. (If any of the Gatorade® folks are reading, I would be willing to burst out of a basketball in purple-colored rain* for a commercial or something, if you'd like.)

Community and Accountability

I trained for this race for about three months. I worked my way up from running no miles ever to running 11 miles for my last long run before the race. For the first month and a half or so of my training, I didn't tell anyone. I just started running lots of miles — my friends just figured I had this newfound passion for being miserable. You see, the reason I didn't let anyone know that I was training for a half marathon was so that I could decide not to do it without anyone thinking I had failed. Clever, eh?

I kept running, though, and pretty soon, I began to mention that I was thinking about maybe, possibly, perhaps, probably not, but you-never-know, entertaining the idea of running a half marathon in September.

Finally my dad bought a plane ticket to come out for the weekend so that he could watch me as I crossed the finish line. Shoot. I was stuck.

However, the accountability — knowing people were going to ask how things were going, knowing that my dad and friends were going to be at the finish line — kept me going when I wanted to give up. In a way, I had to do this race — people were depending on it.

My friends were there throughout my training to encourage me to keep running and to "scold" me if I skipped. It's this community that I'm grateful for — not just for working out, but for other areas of my life as well. If you don't have good community where you're at, I encourage you to seek it out. Pray that the Lord will surround you with people who will strengthen you and lift you up, gently show you where you fail, and encourage you to continue with whatever "race" you happen to be running.

A Summer of Many Miles

Finally, I learned that I have no desire to ever run a full marathon. Some people get bit by the running bug and will continue forever. I got bit by the bug too. But it hurt, so I wised up and sprayed DEET all around so it will never happen again.

C O F F E E  S H O P

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In which areas of your life do you need to learn perseverance
and discipline?

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Anyway, that's the tale of my summer of many miles. I'm very glad that I persevered and finished this race. And I'm grateful that through the pain, God was able to teach me some quality lessons. This race is an accomplishment I won't soon forget. And neither will my aching feet.