strength

The First 10 Miles

My husband and I are avid runners.  Well, we’re runners…maybe not quite avid.  We do races together.  Well, we start together…but usually end at different times.  It’s rare that we stay together for an entire race because we run at different paces so we’re usually content to wish each other luck at the beginning…and then look for each at the end.

This past Thanksgiving, however, we decided to stay together for the entire length of a half marathon.  My husband really wanted to complete this race, but was scheduled to work a 12 hour shift the night before…meaning he would work from 7 pm to 7 am and the race started at 8 am.  This sounded like a terrible idea to me…but he wouldn’t be swayed from his goal.  Hence the reason for us staying together for the entire distance.  I was quite certain I would need to watch out that he didn’t take a nap somewhere along the way!

A half marathon is a challenging distance to begin with…so running one on no sleep poses a much more difficult task.  But, my husband is strong and determined, so we set out to accomplish this goal the best we could.  We made it through the first three miles with relative ease at a moderate pace…talking and laughing as we went…breezing through the water stations and barely breaking a sweat.

As we rolled up on mile six, I could see he was starting to get fatigued.  We stopped to stretch and catch our breaths.  Our conversation had gotten less lighthearted and he was becoming more focused.  At mile nine, I was doing my best to encourage him, but we had slowed to a walk-run pace and were just aiming to finish this thing.

During this time I was offering words of encouragement to him…reminding him that at the end of this race there was turkey and casseroles and stuffing and dessert.  All we had to do was get to the end.  We hit mile ten and I said, “Only 3 miles to go!”  He looked at me with a deadpan expression and said, “What about the first 10 miles?”

I responded to him in a way I wouldn’t normally respond.  I didn’t sugar coat my answer or coddle to his fatigue.  I responded to his question in a way he needed to hear right then.  I told him, “Those first 10 miles don’t count right now.  Right now, it’s just the three miles before us that count!”  I could immediately see he didn’t like that answer.

To his brain…and legs…and lungs…those ten miles COUNTED.  They hurt.  They were long.  They made him tired.  And they had to be done in order to finish the race.  But to the end result, those 10 miles didn’t count by themselves.  We had to finish the last three miles.

Without the last three miles, it’s just a 10 mile run.  Without the last three miles, it’s not a completed half marathon.  You have to run the whole 13.1 miles to get the medal..or else you just wasted all that time!  And you can’t finish the last three if you’re thinking about how hard the first 10 were.

Sometimes a season of our life may seem like this half marathon.  We enter the season already tired and weary, but we want to finish because we know it’s what we need to do.  We want the medal at the end, but we are discouraged by the slow trudging in between that is weighing us down.

We aren’t at the beginning of the race…where there is excitement and crowds.  We aren’t near the end…where there is hope and joy at the seeing the finish line.  We are stuck about two-thirds of the way through…too far in to turn back, but not far enough to feel encouraged that it’s almost over.  And so we look back at how far we’ve come and start to think “that’s good enough”.

But the Lord is telling you…push through child.  You have come so far and done so well, but you aren’t done yet.  Walk for a bit if you need to, but don’t stop.  There is more.  You have more to do…more to accomplish.  More is yet to come…if you don’t stop now.  Your first 10 miles were hard and they challenged you.  I know you are weary.  But stop looking back.  Look forward and focus on what’s ahead.  Put the pain and struggle of the first ten away and run the last three with a renewed strength…because only then will you get the medal.  Focus on the right here…and right now. 

It’s the beginning of a new year…and a lot of us are in a time of fasting and prayer with our churches.  This is the perfect time let go of whatever your “first 10 miles” have been in your life…poor choices, regrets, worry, doubt, debt, anger, greed, insecurities, etc. and put your focus forward to the “last three miles”.  Determine to finish this race with the strength that comes from knowing the Lord is with you…encouraging you along the way…never giving up on you or making you run alone!

“But one thing I do:  Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.”  Philippians 3:13-14

“Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us.  Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that lay before Him endured a cross and despised the shame and has sat down at the right hand of God’s throne.”  Hebrews 12:1b-2

 

Just Keep Going

There were four American women predicted to win Boston:  Shalane Flanagan, Jordan Hasay, Molly Huddle, and Desi Linden.  Flanagan…who had just won the NYC marathon months before.  Hasay…who had run two impressive marathons and came in with the fastest PR for a marathon of the four of them.  Huddle…who set a record in a previous NYC marathon.  And Linden…who had never won a marathon before, but had completed 14 of them.  Of the four of them, Linden had been given the lowest chance of winning by “the experts”.

The night before the race, Hasay dropped out because of a stress fracture to her heel found on an MRI.  So then there were three.

Starting temperatures at the race were COLD…and it was rainy….and windy.  As the race went on, it got colder…and wetter…and windier.  The camera lens recording the runners had constant rain streaks coming down it.  At times, you could barely make out the runners because of the sheets of rain pouring down on them.  Several miles into the race, Flanagan stopped for a restroom break (practically unheard of for an elite runner during such an important race).  Linden slowed her pace and waited for Flanagan to help her catch back up to the lead pack.

The race continued in this unprecedented weather.  As it got colder and wetter, more and more runners backed off and slowed down.  All but one female runner seemed to succumb to the hypothermia attempting to take over.  Huddle had dropped back in the pack along with Flanagan.  At the end of mile 21, Linden made her move and overtook the only female between her and the finish line.  She passed her competitor and literally never looked back for the final miles.  All the way down the homestretch, she kept her eyes forward, her arms pumping, her legs turning, and her concentration strong…all the way through the tape at the finish line! She won her first marathon and became the first American woman to win Boston in 33 years!

When asked about her win in the post race interviews, Linden was humble…and honest.  She admitted that at miles 2, 3, and 4 she wanted to drop out.  She only stayed in the race to help out the other runners who were predicted to beat her: Flanagan and Huddle.  The funny part was that the more she gave of herself to help others succeed, the more strength she gained for herself.  She said that at one point she looked around and she suddenly realized that she was in third or fourth place so she just “kept going” rather than dropping out.  She was not the fastest…or the best trained…or the most fit…or even the most determined….she was simply the one that kept going when everyone else dropped back.

We all have seasons in our lives that feel like this Boston marathon.  Times of unprecedented turmoil.  “Weather” that pours down on our minds and souls without stopping.  Struggles that make us feel like dropping out and taking a DNF (did not finish).  You “trained” for one set of circumstances, but life delivered a totally different set of circumstances that you weren’t expecting….and you had to choose.  Drop out or keep going.  You really only have one choice in this life though…you have to keep going.  There’s no second chance…no alternate option.

You may feel like this is not supposed to be happening to you…at least not this way or at this time, but God sets our course.  He is aware of your struggles and challenges long before you are and He has prepared the way for you.  He has prepared YOU for this season more than you realize.  You just have to learn to trust Him through the process and know that He has not forsaken you.

If you are going through your own personal “Boston Marathon”, keep your eyes forward, your arms pumping, your legs turning, and your concentration on Jesus.  He’ll pull you through….all the way through the tape at the finish line!

“I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet the bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill, but time and chance happen to them all.”  Ecclesiastes 9:11 KJV

“The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.  Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” Deuteronomy 31:8 NIV