Life Lessons from a Marathon

You know how in moives, you'll often see this person start to day dream about the perfect thing happening? The screen will get fuzzy white around the edges, and then they see the perfect someone noticing them or they win a great prize or life is just bliss, and then all of a sudden it comes to a screeching halt as they wake up. Well, that's what I felt like with my marathon. My training was awesome, and during my 20 mile run, I felt as though I could have run the whole marathon. I was excited and not too nervous, reminding myself that it was just going to be another long run. My cousin and I lined up at the start, ready to go. We planned to run together. Throughout our training, we only had run together one time, but as we talked, we thought we were running at a similar pace. So we started out just in front of the 10 minute mile pacer.

The first seven miles were great! We were having a good time, and the weather was perfect. After about 7 miles, I could tell that I was running harder than I was used to. Noelle's pace was just a bit faster than mine, and I began to wonder if I was going to regret keeping up with her. By mile 9, I had decided to let her continue on in a faster pace. By mile 13, I was hurting. By mile 15, I was ready to walk the rest, but I knew I couldn't do that. The last 11 miles were rough. I ended up walking a lot more than I really wanted to, but I was in a lot of pain from pushing hard early on, and I wasn't able to do it. I didn't have anyone running beside me to push me on. With six miles left, I knew I needed help.

My dad, mom, and friend Madison had come to cheer me on. My dad, if you don't know him is 6' 7" tall. With that much height, he has very long legs. When we go walking, I often have to do a slow jog just to keep up with him. I knew he would be the pacer I would need to make sure I didn't slowly walk the rest of the race. I asked if he would walk the rest with me, and he did. He pushed me to do more jogging than I probably would have, encouraged me to keep running and rest when I needed to, and he urged me to finish strong. He helped me keep around a 12 minute mile walking/jogging pace towards the end of the race. I don't know if I would have finished without him.

When it comes down to it, I finished the race. I accomplished my goal, though I didn't do it in the

way I wanted to. Right after the race, I would have told you that I never wanted to do that again (especially since I had a hard time walking the next few days). However, shortly after I was done, I started wishing I had done things differently and wishing I could give it another go-around. Though it will probably be a while before I may get the chance to do another marathon, I know that I would do things differently if I get that chance. My race was not without benefit, however, as my I learned many lessons learned from my marathon. Here they are:

Life Lessons from my Marathon

1. When you train for and run a marathon, there are parts of your body that will never be the same. Parts of you will be better (Have you seen my calves lately?), while parts of you will be worse (my toes looked nasty from the many blisters I received, and I actually lost a toe nail from a huge blister that surrounded it). In life, there are things that we go through that will make us look better and things that will make us look worse, but it is all for our good. Life isn’t all about looks. And what's life without a few battle scars?!

2. Don’t try to keep up with everyone else. If you haven’t trained with someone, keep to your own pace. You need someone who will push you, but not too hard. Pushing too hard will only cause you to run out of energy too early.

3. Don’t start off too fast. Sometimes you can keep a faster pace for a long time, but it will wear off before the end (and even before the middle). Try to keep a steady pace – the pace at which you trained. In life, we need to keep a steady pace and not take on too much. As a missionary, I will need to be careful not to take on too many things right away. I need to go at a slow, steady pace so that I don’t burn out too soon.

4. You need others. I couldn’t have finished this race on my own. I need my cousin to help me start off well, and I needed my dad to help me finish well. I needed the people on the sidelines to cheer me on and encourage me to keep going. I needed the water stop people to help refresh me. I needed all of these people! I couldn’t have run this race without all of those people.

5. Sometimes you need to stop running and just walk a little. As much as I wanted to run the whole thing, I ended up walking. Because I pushed too hard at the beginning, I had to walk to catch my breath and rest my legs a bit. Walking caused me other pains (since I hadn’t been using the same muscles for training), but I still was able to finish.

6. Run so you won’t regret it. If you wonder if you might regret a decision you are making or an action you are doing, think and pray hard before continuing it. I was wondering during the first nine miles if I was going to regret pushing hard. I ended up regretting it about mile 14. I should have listened to my intuition and not pushed so hard.

7. No matter how you run the race, finish hard. I struggled during this race, but I wasn’t going to stop. Half-way through, it felt like I would never finish. It felt as though I didn’t even want to. But, I also knew I couldn’t give up. I had signed up and trained for this race, and I needed to finish. Even though I was in a lot of pain, I was able to push hard the last half mile and “sprint” across the finish line.

I am sure there are many more lessons I have learned from this. I thank the Lord that He uses even our weaknesses to grow us and make us more like Him.

P.S. Yes, I still run, but I definitely have enjoyed sleeping in on Saturdays!