Lessons Learned From Running a Half Marathon

November 13th, 2010. That was the day I did something I NEVER thought I would do. Running 13.1 miles? That just sounds like torture.

After running my first 10K last spring I decided the whole running thing was actually so bad. It seemed like a notch above torture, maybe equivalent to scratching a chalk-board or hearing the word "moist" used repeatedly in a sentence. Even so, after running a few miles I almost always gave up, believing I couldn't make it any farther.

This fall, I decided I was going to give the whole running thing one more shot. Thankfully, I had a new running buddy to start training with. Lauren and I made the commitment to begin running together at least three times a week. Honestly, I didn't know if we'd (or really me...since Lauren had already run two half-marathons) be able to keep the commitment. Despite my skepticism, we persevered! I don't want to over-spiritualize things, but I'd like to share with you a few things I learned about myself and about the Lord through my experience.

1) The importance of community and accountability. I could not have trained as hard as I did without Lauren and several of the other friends I ran with. On cold days, rainy days, achy days, and hot days, I knew Lauren would be waiting at 7:15am for me in her apartment. On mile five or six or eight, I knew I had to keep going because Lauren kept going. This has an obvious parallel to our walk with Christ. We need other people. "And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near" (Heb. 10:24-25). As C.S. Lewis so eloquently puts in Mere Christianity,“God can show Himself as He is only to real men. And that means not simply to men who are individually good, but to men who are united together in a body, loving one another, helping one another, showing Him to one another…the one really adequate instrument for learning about God is the whole Christian community…”

2) The importance of encouragement. For most of my life, I have told myself I am not a runner. Therefore, any time I'd try and run more than 1-2 miles, I'd usually start walking because I really believed I couldn't do it. Encouragement from Lauren and other friends helped me to realize I really can do it. This is so often true of the Christian life. We start believing lies and become defeated. We need others to speak truth into our lives and to show us where we are thinking wrongly about things. "But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin" (Heb. 3:13). If we don't have encouragement, we will quickly be hardened by sins deceitfulness.

3) The role of discipline. You can run a lot farther than you think you can. Really, I promise you can. It just takes discipline. Without slowly increasing mileage week by week, I would have never been able to run more than 2 miles. Sure there are some that have the ability to not train at all and then go out and run a half-marathon, but the majority of the world is not that athletically inclined (myself definitely included). Discipline is also incredibly important in the Christian life. Just as a pianist cannot play a concerto without practice, the believer will not have godly character without discipline. "Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified" (Heb. 9:24-27).

4) The necessity of having an end goal in sight. It's much easier to keep going when you know the end is near. It's also easier to keep training when you have a race-day goal. I have found this to be true in my walk with the Lord as well. When I go through trial or suffering, I fight to place my hope in the End, in the day when there will be no more tears and pain. "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a could of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God" (Heb. 12:1-2).

5) Sometimes temporary pain is necessary. The temporary pain of muscle aches and sore feet lead to the ability to run farther and longer. In much the same way, suffering and pain leads to endurance and hope in Christ. "More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (Rom. 5:3-5).

I must admit, I haven't run since November 13th. However, I'm getting to the point where I'm starting to really miss it. I'm thankful for all the things I learned and I hope to do another race again in the near (but not too near!) future. Maybe this time I'll even try and finish in a semi-respectable speed. Thank you to everyone who encouraged me and taught me so much!