Suffering. Endurance. Character. Hope.
In my previous post I mentioned that marathon training can be a journey - one that often ends with personal growth in addition to all of the wonderful physical benefits (unless you get injured, then you don’t get either). That personal growth tends to take place on runs like I did this morning, where I went 5.5 miles down a dark and hilly street, then turned around and came back 5.5 miles on the same dark and hilly street. You can only focus on your running form for so long when you have nothing to look at but the occasional headlights from an oncoming car.
As I often do, during my run this morning I got to thinking about my miserable Boston Marathon experience (or I should call it a “non-experience”) from last year. For those of you who are new to these pages, I achieved one of my life’s goals of qualifying for the Boston Marathon in 2006, and trained for it all last winter. Then on the way out to Boston, I got very sick and had to withdraw from the race. I came back home, defeated and depressed, and then started running my way out of my depression. And while I feel much better now (2,000+ miles later), I don’t think that depression will be completely lifted until I run this year’s Boston Marathon.
So back to this morning. The thought that continues to appear to me is that something good will come out of last year’s misery. I’m not sure what it is….it could be a sub-3:00 finish at Boston; it could be perfect weather on race day; who knows. But I am certain it will happen. I have hope.
As I thought of the word “hope” this morning, that instantly led my mind to one of yesterday’s readings in church (yes, my kids are finally old enough that I can pay attention to those things in church instead of nagging them to be quiet or sit up straight!). The second reading was from Romans and there was a sentence that went, “we rejoice in our suffering knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint.” Now tell me that is not a perfect way to look at my situation (and anybody who has suffered but not given up hope)? I can also relate this line to the many other times I have suffered in my life, but gotten through it with hope…….and lots of running!!
Workout:
- Type: Run
- Date: 02/25/2008
- Time: 05:00:00
- Total Time: 1:32:02.00
- Distance: 11 miles
- Average Pace: 8:22.09/mile
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Posted by Chris on Monday, February 25th, 2008 at 5:00 am and is filed under Run.
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