Why I Ran a Marathon: Because Life is Not a Sprint.

 

Dopey Challenge 2023

When you tell people that you just ran a race, it is not uncommon for a few folks to respond back with a question: "Well, did you win?" The answer I suppose depends on how one defines winning.  If you are comparing your race to the performance of others, winning is getting to the finish fastest. If you are running the race that is set out for you alone, winning is not necessarily being first. In fact, from a biblical view that shouldn't be our goal at all. It is finishing well. Winning is when you keep going, when it would be so much easier to quit. Paul puts it this way in 2nd Timothy 4:7: You fight the good fight, you finish the race, you keep the faith.

 In God's economy, forward is a pace. 

So, this leads me to the reasons why I decided to run a marathon. The truth is that I had run one many years ago. It was over 20 years ago to be exact. It was so painful that I vowed never to run another one...one and done! Looking back, I now know why the experience was so difficult. It was because my training was woefully inadequate. Running a marathon requires not just months of physical training. It also requires simultaneous mental training. It requires prioritizing recovery and nutrition. It requires a particular set of priorities that doesn't just focus on running the race and getting to the finish line but running the race well. Running a marathon is an endurance race. You don't sprint. You pace yourself for the long run. You train not so the race will be easy. You train so you can endure it. Endurance is a mindset. How do we develop that mindset? We endure. 

In the beginning months of 2022, I began to realize I was going to need this kind of mindset. Life handed me a set of difficult circumstances that required me to pivot both personally and professionally. In faith, I knew that the end would be rewarding (even though I couldn't see the finish line.) I had walked with God long enough to know that His word promises to work all things to our good for those who believe in him. (Romans 8:28) But I also realized to actually live that kind of faith in my current circumstances would require me to be strong in a way mentally I had never faced before. I knew I would be tempted to quit. Not just on myself, but in my faith that God would redeem it.  I have always understood the similarity of running a race to my own discipleship. My whole blog is based on it.  Seeing the spiritual and mental challenge placed before me, it was right then I decided I was going to do the Dopey Challenge. It is four races over four days: 5k,10k, Half-marathon, and then Full Marathon for a total of 48.6 miles. Go big or go home, right? It seemed like the right challenge. 

Running like golf is a simple sport. It doesn't take long to figure out in your head what you need to do. It's all about getting what's in your head down into your body. You aim to develop muscle memory from your practice or training, so that it just comes out of you naturally. That is what following Jesus is all about. It's taking our head knowledge and turning it into heart knowledge so that it naturally flows out of your person. That is the essence of discipleship. Taking a wholistic approach to maturing in Christ, I believe, means having your mind and your body work together. God didn't say our minds are the temple of the Holy Spirit. He says our bodies are. 

"Do you not know that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, and you have received from God? You are not your own, You were bought with a price. So honor God with your bodies." -1st Corinth 6: 19-20.

If the way the Holy Spirit works in my life is also through my body, then what I do with it directly affects my spiritual walk. If I choose to endure with my body, I can teach my mind and emotions to do the same. And vice versa.  Any running coach will tell you:  your mind will want to give up long before your body actually does. So, if the goal is to develop an endurance mindset, I determined I would choose a physical challenge that would require me to do so as well. It's called neuroplasticity: you become what you meditate on. Jesus called these spiritual disciplines. As believers we should practice certain behaviors because they ultimately form us as followers of Christ. An example is fasting. Fasting is a physical denial of something in your body, like food. It is a way we connect with God through our stomach. This may seem odd, but when you learn to deny yourself in this area through practice, it makes it easier to deny yourself being reactionary in other areas in your life. Like when somebody offends you or your tempted to sin. Every time I kept going on the long run when I wanted to quit, I was training my spirit to fight the good fight of faith when the next difficult moment comes. It helps to have a short mantra to repeat to yourself. Mine was "Don't Quit on Yourself." To endure a challenge, you have to know your why. That is what you will call upon in the moments you want to quit.  My "WHY" was buried within my mantra: I will physically train my body so I will teach my mind and my emotions what they need to do. "For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come." 1st Timothy 4:8. Others may quit on you, "Don't Quit on Yourself." Every mile became a spiritual formation that I can do hard things. My training was less about a finish line and more about who I was becoming through it. 

 Running those long miles has taught me several lessons for life:

1. Slow down and be intentional with my energy. When you train for a marathon, you deliberately run most of your mileage at a slower pace. This prevents injuries. I saw God doing this in my circumstances as well. How you fuel for endurance is very important. Be careful what you allow to nourish your being. Prioritize recovery. If you don't fill your own cup, you can't pour out to others. 

2. You're allowed to find joy in difficult circumstances. It is a choice. I wrote a past blog all about who modeled this for me. Joy along with endurance is a mindset. Run Disney is such a metaphor for this.  

3. Take pride in your accomplishments without comparison to others. Run your race. When this is your perspective, you don't lose. We either win or we learn. Failure is only feedback. Pick yourself up and move forward. Forward is a pace. Did I win my races? The answer is yes! I finished and I finished well. It brought literal tears to my eyes knowing I was going to cross that finish line. The real prize was knowing that God was literally with me every step of the way. Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength." 

4. Never say never to God. I said I would never run another marathon. But that was before I knew what I was going to need in this season of life. God's grace carried me through all of it; physically and mentally. My part was to not quit. The places in life where you are most afraid is exactly where He will gently lead you. Why? So, you can conquer your fear. Your fears are the place you probably most misunderstand who God is and who He created you to be. "If God is for us, who can be against us? I want to challenge you to meditate on this scripture alone. To meditate means to rehearse. How different would our lives be if we operated without fear? .... Romans 8 affirms that if you really understand how much God is for you (so much so that he did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all) then you can face any challenge. We are "more than conquerors"... of finish lines, 48.6 miles, or whatever life throws our way. There is nothing that separates you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. Finishing a marathon, is a state of mind that anything is possible with Christ. This past year, I have experienced firsthand knowledge of this.

 If you want to run, run a mile. If you want to experience a different life, run a marathon.