It's not just about the marathon...

Have you ever heard of anyone who just woke up one day, decided to sign up for a marathon and run it that same day? I haven’t. I am sure there are a few souls who have done it, but the story is not a common one. People train for marathons. They train for different amounts of time, at different speeds and with different levels of success. But people train for marathons and most of them train for many months.

If you are going to sign up for one of these things it really better not be because you only want to run 26.2 miles in a row. A standard program includes more than 300 miles of running before the final 26.2. The marathon race and training are two separate things. One is filled with people running, cheering, volunteering. The other you do on your own. One lasts 5+ hours, the other lasts 5 months.

So it’s not just about the marathon, it’s about the training and what training will do for you. Getting your body in shape is just the beginning.

I’ve realized in the last few weeks that training is a trial for the soul. It wears you down in every way something can. As much great support as I have had through this, I have had twice as many people put some aspect of this down. People who call me crazy, question the value of it, point out the dangers of running out in the cold, say “it’s bad for you,” etc. After awhile, it’s hard not to believe that stuff.

I’ve run out of motivation over and over again. I have been dejected by the snow, slow on hills, lost, tired, and sore. I’ve gotten sick of running, and just plain sick and had to find a way to put my shoes back on and go. I have had scheduling conflicts and not enough sleep.

I’ve listened to my brain tell me how tired I am, how much my feet hurt and how I can’t handle one more hill. I have seen my grocery bill increase, my need for sleep increase, and my free time decrease.

But I keep training. We human beings are so much tougher than we can possibly imagine. For so much of our lives we skate on the surface of what’s comfortable, fun and easy. But that’s not where we really learn. That’s not where we are transformed. We are changed when we dig down deeper than the pain, the boredom, and the exhaustion and find the strength to keep going. When we encounter a wall, and find a way to get past it, we see the other walls of fear and negativity crumble with our new found confidence.

It takes a lot of time and patience, both on individual runs and over course of months. There are going to be days and weeks filled with doubt. And yet, if we can just be patient, just keep running, we might find ourselves not only accomplishing something we never dreamed we could, but having been transformed by the journey. By the perseverance and ability to continue running through pain, not away from it. We might find our perspective on life changes a bit when we’ve run 16 miles or wake up before sunrise to fit in a run. We might find ourselves growing not just as runners, but as people.