12 Weeks until the Boston
Marathon. I am excited about the journey
ahead. I am hoping it is a journey of
renewal and redemption. I entered the
Boston Marathon five years ago with a marathon personal best of 2:31:45. However, with training not going as planned
and nagging injuries slowing me down, I headed into the race just hoping to run
under 2:40. I was still excited
though. I had a running singlet (jersey)
made that said, “All 4 Jesus” with a Cross on the front; and on the back it
said, “He knows you. He loves you. Run free.”
I love Jesus with all of my heart, and one of my main goals heading into
the race was spreading the message of Christ’s Freedom through wearing the
jersey. To make a long story short, I completely fell
apart; ran around 2:55:36, and finished 758th. I started the race off a little
too quickly and starting hitting the wall at the way too early 13 mile
mark. Hundreds of people proceeded to
pass me through the rest of the race as I helplessly and a little despondently
watched them go by. One of those people
was actually Lance Armstrong, who was taking his first, and it turns out, only
shot so far at the Boston Marathon.
Looking at the bright side, out of the hundreds that passed me, maybe a
few received the message that was on the back of my jersey. I did receive a few words of encouragement
from passing runners that commented on my gear, and several fans along the road
gave words of encouragement such as “Onward Christian Soldier!” and simply
yelling “Jesus!”
Although Boston was a unique experience, and
the crowds were wonderful, I had a difficult time enjoying it because the race
itself went so poorly. In fact, I hadn’t even realized that I had
gone up heartbreak hill (around mile 21 of the race)…probably because most of
the race was heartbreak, and I couldn’t tell the difference. One awesome thing about God though is that
even through disappointing experiences/performances, I still have an inner
peace that is Him (Ephesians 2:14…..For He Himself is our peace…”). It comes with having a relationship with
Christ; and it’s something that I wouldn’t trade for anything in the
world. So as I crossed the finish line
I felt a peaceful disappointment….a feeling that lasted for several days until
I was ready to move on and train for the next race. The peace is still there…that is Christ…who
is always with me (“I will never leave you nor forsake you.” – Hebrews 13:5).
The disappointment on the other hand has pretty much faded. Whenever I get asked questions such as “Have
you ever run Boston?”; or if I ever think about the race, the disappointment
creeps in a little, but is short-lived.
So, here we are five years
later preparing for Boston for the 2nd time. My number one goal for this race is still to
run for Him, honor Him, and lift His name up.
Our God is a God of redemption. I
know race times and how high one finishes are not the most important
aspect. However, I have to believe that
the race this year will be different than the one in 2008. I certainly do not know what my time and
place will be, but I believe the experience will be good. I believe I will walk away from this race
with the same peace as I had four years ago, but the disappointment will be
turned into joy (Psalm 30:11). I want to
give the next 12 weeks of training to God.
I want to give the 2013 Boston Marathon to God. He can do more with it than I would ever be
able to do.
In the following will be entries
from my day to day training. Most of my
training and/or training principles come from Pete Pfitzinger and Scott
Douglas’s book Advanced Marathoning.
To me, their book is the next best thing to having a professional, personalized
coach (which is not in the current budget).
So here we go: Let the journey begin.
No comments:
Post a Comment