I sent an email out on the running listserves, announcing a weekend ten miler, with shirts for all (supplies limited) and medals for the top three. So far, about 30 runners have signed up and most of them have already run. Seven of these runners are at another location, so I will be mailing their shirts today.
This morning, one of my buds in the unit came over to my office to gush soon after finishing his ten miler. He blew away his fastest previous time (finished in about 78 minutes). He credited in part to a list of questions I gave him after a disappointing half marathon (that I also always ask myself after a race (especially a poor one):
1) Have I been running enough?
2) Did I run/workout too much that I didn't leave time to recover?
3) Did I get enough sleep, drink plenty of water, and eat the right foods in the days prior?
4) Was I hydrating enough during the race with both water and Gatorade?
5) Did I eat snacks during the race to replenish my energy stores?
6) Did I start off too fast so that I bonked toward the end?
7) Was my goal time realistic?
8) Was my head in the game? Did I look at the clock too much or think about my legs too much?
He thinks the biggest improvement came from eating a snack during the race (#5). I think his biggest improvment came from his attitude (#8). Employing a few of these strategies from the list, he came in more confident (believing, as I told him, that one can become faster as they run). More important, he had just learned that his wife had finally gotten the job she wanted after years of trying and no success. He was grateful to God for this development, and at one point, laughed during his run.
Experientially, this soldier discovered one of the great secrets of running and theses of the book, Born to Run. For a remote tribe of elite ultramarathoners in a secluded canyon in Mexico, they never "went for a run"--they just ran. They didn't have a well-balanced diet, good shoes, or injury prevention plan--they just ran. And the few times they ran ultramarathons in the US, they psyched other runners out, not because of their feet, but because of their smiles. They delighted in using their bodies as they were made to be used--like children who run barefoot in grass at full speed at every opportunity simply because they can.
Eric Liddell, the Christian olympic runner took this line of thought to a higher plane when he said, "I believe that God made me for a purpose. But He also made me fast, and when I run, I feel His pleasure."
There is something about running, when not done purely as an exercise, that quiets the soul before God. There is something about using this ingenuous, God-crafted contraption called the body--where a quarter of the bones exist in the feet--to explore His creation and marvel at His handiwork. I aim to run more according to this dictum: Speed does not preceed enjoyment; Enjoyment preceeds speed.
God tells us in 1 Cor. 10:31, "Whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do it to the glory of God." When we use our created bodies, mind, and hearts for His glory and service, it is then that we can "feel His pleasure," and truly begin to enjoy Him forever. May God draw our minds to things above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, we will also appear with Him in glory (Col. 3).
