Life Lesson from Marathon Training

To get where you want you have to do things you don’t like

I don’t like running but I wanted to run a Marathon. I don’t mind running but if I had to choose between running and another workout, running normally doesn’t win. We ran a half marathon 6 years ago. We trained to run with a group of people thinking we were training for a marathon. Mom and I found out later it was only a half but we had trained up to 18 miles. So I knew it was possible. I just couldn’t muster up the nerve to put myself through that. This year my phrase was Do Hard Things. It’s a Hard Thing I wanted to do. It was on my bucket list. I decided it was now or never.

There are goals we set in life and its the day to day training that gets us there. I couldn't jump in a race and decide to run 26.2 miles. I had to be consistent with my training. I had to show up for the grunt work to get the to the finish line. The photos of race finishers are inspiring. There's hoopla around a race. There's no one cheering you on during the training. You are doing it rain, snow and humidity. You do it because you know what the pay off is.

In finances we don't buy what we can't afford. In relationships we apologize and forgive when we don't want to. In health we do the workout and make healthy choices to reach our goal. In the end it pays, we pay off debt, have better marriages, have better health.

Our first training day!

 

Not everybody is rooting for you. Smile, nod, move on.

I know. Can you believe that? We all have a desire or a passion to do something and I have found that we need to be careful about who we share our dreams with. There are dream killers out there. You share your goal and they email you all the things that could go wrong. You could die. Marathoners die. You won’t lose any more weight. You will lose all of your muscle tone. It’s really not good for your heart. It kills your immune system. Why would you want to do that? I actually had a customer email me and tell me not to get bombed.

I don’t think it’s that they don’t want you do succeed or do well, they just don’t want you to do more than them. You begin to climb the ladder and they grab your ankles. Shake ‘em off and keep climbing. Some people live in an constant state of “life sucks”. You can sit on that bench with them. It’s your dream. It’s your goal. Keep going. My favorite quote by John Maxwell is "Sometimes you Win and Sometimes you learn." You will never know what you are capable of until you try. You can't sit on the sidelines forever and you can't let other peoples opinions keep you from trying. So what, you fail, they laugh. Try again.

What’s hard today will be easy later.

Our first long run was 5 miles. Our short run at the end was 6 miles. Every long run hurt but the next week in only felt hard after we passed the previous week’s mileage. I think that’s why we give up on our goals so soon. It’s too hard. It’s too much time. It’s seems so far away. If we kept going every time we wanted to quit we’d be there- Finances, Faith, Marriage, Fitness…whatever. It doesn’t get easier. You get better. We are constantly looking at the distance of the Finish line and not seeing how much we can close the gap by doing a little more today. You won't lose 50 pounds in a week, pay off you mortgage in a month, or train for a marathon in one either. You can break it off in small goals and push yourself every day to get there. Once you gain momentum in your goals, you will be unstoppable. Do it today. Do it tomorrow. Repeat.

Attitude Matters-Quitting can’t be an option

The days I showed up with a good attitude I ran better. The days we showed up giving each other dirty looks the run was hard. Our last 20 miler was hard. It was a hot humid day. We were used to cool and cloudy. We went through twice the amount of water as usual. At mile 15 one of us ended up crying on the road and the other one cussing innocent Yorkie dogs. We had to regroup. We had five miles left to go and it took some deep digging and a few dirt stained tear streaks to get to the end.  It was tough, I began to wonder if I could really pull off 26.2 miles. I was discouraged.  Mom was discouraged. We kept reminding ourselves we ran 20 miles before and we did fine. That one bad run, just about sent us to the chicken exit.

I had a really bad attitude during miles 3-11 of the actual marathon. They were supposed to have a Port-a-Potty at several stops. I’ve had four kids.  It was mile 11 before I found a bathroom. I was thinking about my survey for the last 5 of those. I was going to let them know how hard it is to run without a bathroom and rude it was to think we would want to pee on the side of a busy highway. I was praying that I wouldn’t pee my pants and planning to call Barney to bring me clean ones if I did. I was getting grouchier by the minute.  The lady at the first bathroom in 10 miles said the delivery guys over slept and they were very sorry about the restroom situation. My attitude was wound up over something out of their control.

How many times do we do that in life, in relationships, in work. One bad run and you’re done. Focus on the good runs, the good in people, the good in your day to day. Stop putting Quit on the table as an option. Seek the truth and answers before filling out your mental survey on someone. There just may be a reason for the madness.

I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength

Both books I read and all my runner friends said to trust the training. We will make it 26.2 miles. Trust the training. On Marathon day we had only run 20 miles. We were going to have to run 6.2 more miles. I had to push that out of my head a dozen times and keep telling myself to trust the training.  Miles 21-23 were tough. There was a moment when I didn’t think I could make it. My legs were sore, my hips hurt, and I wasn’t sure if I had feet anymore.

“Lord, help me” was what I prayed over and over. “Please get us to the end”.  He did. At times I felt waves of relief and bursts of energy, and I felt him telling us we were going to make it. It was during those last few miles I began to discuss these lessons I learned with him.

He gives us training to run our race. My race looks different than yours. You might finish your race in the time it takes me to run half of mine. We rounded mile 13.1 as one of the runners finished his 26.2. We cheered him on too.  I may run awkwardly and slow and someone else has speed and grace. I have bad training days and attitudes to overcome. He may call me to do things and go places I don’t want to go, but he says to trust the training. We win this race.

Crossing the Finish Line!

I can’t begin to describe the feeling of seeing mile marker 26 and rounding that last corner to see all of our family members standing with matching shirts and signs. The tears rolled. They knew how hard we had trained, how many hours we put into this, they endured our bad days, lost socks, blisters, and aches too.  I couldn’t help but think of the day I cross the ultimate finish line and an army of saints and angels that have gone on before me, will cheer us to the end. They will know the trials we faced, the hills we climbed, the failures we faced.  There won’t be a guy at the end with a medal and congratulations. When I stay the course and run the race I will hear the Savior say, “Well done thy good and faithful servant".  It will make every training run, every hill, every blister, every ache worth the training.

Our shirts said:

 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. 1 Timothy 4:7

It’s my prayer.