Choose Your Own Pace

Choose Your Own Pace

A runner’s pace is personal, that is, it should be matched to his or her abilities, physical attributes, and goals. Runners shouldn’t try to run exactly like anyone else. But that doesn’t mean that a runner should never try to run faster. Actually, until the body begins to break down or wear down (through injury, use, or old age), experienced runners will tend to improve in speed and endurance. Putting in the miles with a regular running routine will increase endurance. And gradually pushing personal pace for certain distances will improve speed. Obviously this has limits—eventually every runner will reach the end of his or her resources. But serious runners want to improve. They love setting a new personal record for a race or a specific distance.

Wanting to improve is a commendable desire in every area of life. Jesus spoke to this desire when addressing the church at Thyatira. Before listing his complaints about the church and explaining what corrective action had to be taken, Jesus complimented them: “I know all the things you do. I have seen your love, your faith, your service, and your patient endurance. And I can see your constant improvement in all these things” (Revelation 2:19).

That almost sounds like a running coach: “You’ve been improving in every aspect of the sport, especially your endurance. That’s good. Keep it up!”

God expects us to make strides in our relationship with him.

The Runner

Jon was a freshman phenom. With a willowy frame, his long legs ate up the yards, and his endurance was well beyond his fourteen years. Coach Taylor had spotted the boy at the first workout and soon moved him off the freshman cross-country squad to junior varsity. Coach was confident that he had a potential state champion on his team. Under his care, if this young man would work hard . . . well, the coach could dream, couldn’t he?

Jon loved to run, and he especially loved to win races. And he was doing that—regularly—without much trouble. But Jon had other interests, most notably a girl he had met near the end of the fall season. She had come to his meets and had become one of his biggest fans. So while Coach had given Jon and the others an off-season training schedule, Jon hadn’t paid much attention to it, with his attention diverted elsewhere.

The next fall, Jon’s lack of training became obvious. Instead of showing improvement, his times were actually slower than the year before. So he and Coach Taylor had a little talk. Coach explained the potential he saw in Jon and that Jon would need to push himself to reach it. “Running comes easy for you, son,” he said, “so you’ll be tempted to slack off, to do only what you need to get by . . . and you’ll probably still win your share of meets. But think of what you could accomplish if you really tried!” Coach went on to challenge Jon to keep working and keep improving, and Jon agreed to give it a shot, to do his best.

Two years later, he stood on the victory podium—he was state champion.

The Race

Jon’s girlfriend wasn’t the problem, just an excuse. Although Jon had all that potential, he was ignoring it and would have wasted it if Coach hadn’t stepped in.

We expect to grow in every area of life as we get older and gain education and experience. Sometimes that happens naturally (as in physical growth, for example); but at times we have to work at it.

When the apostle Paul learned how the believers in Corinth were acting, he was not happy. They should have been much more spiritually mature than their actions indicated. So he wrote:

Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in the Christian life. I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready, for you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world? When one of you says, “I am a follower of Paul,” and another says, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you acting just like people of the world? (1 Corinthians 3:1-4)

Did you catch that? Paul was saying, “Stop acting like babies and grow up!” The Corinthian believers had chosen their own pace, all right, but it was much slower than it should have been.

The Result

Sometimes looking back can give us perspective, looking back to what we were like then and seeing how far we’ve come. When you first gave your life to Christ, you had an outlook on life and goals for the future. Certainly those must have changed. You also may have had sinful habits that you needed to stop. And where were you in your Bible study and prayer life? Hopefully you’ve seen improvements and growth in all those areas. If not, you may need to become more serious about your spiritual workouts.

My Story

After running the Chicago Marathon for the first time and having to wait forty-five minutes in line for the Porta-Potty, I decided that if I did it again, I would be a charity runner so that I could have access to Charity Village, where each charity has its own private Porta-Potties—with no lines! Clearly this is a pretty lame reason for becoming a charity runner, but doing so has changed my running perspective immensely. The past four years I have run Chicago for the American Cancer Society, and each year I have even more motivation for my training, the race, and my fund-raising. Everyone knows someone who has been affected by cancer. Sadly I have had two very dear friends die of the disease just this past year, not to mention the handful of friends I have who are currently battling cancer in some form or another.

This past year was especially tough to train. I thought the heat would never let up—I do not run well in the heat. In fact, I would much prefer to run in twenty degrees and snow or forty degrees and rain than to run in anything over seventy degrees. My body just slows down, my legs become like lead, I feel nauseous, my head hurts, and I can’t imagine running any distance longer than three miles. But run long I must, as my training calls for fourteen-, sixteen-, eighteen-, and twenty-mile runs, despite the hot, humid weather. Because my body did not want to cooperate, I had to dig deep and rely on my mind and prayer to get me through these runs and through this year’s Chicago Marathon, which had temperatures close to ninety degrees!

During those particularly hot runs, I thought about and prayed for the family and friends who have had to deal with so much more. Thinking about their pain—pain far greater than my temporary discomfort; the chemotherapy that made them sick for days on end, far more so than my bout of nausea for a few miles; the daily battles they have faced, many of which never went away—I have been humbled and honored to run in their honor and memory. So whenever it got a little tough for me and I wanted to quit, I told myself to put on my big-girl pants and get going.

I try to remember these things during the struggles of day-to-day life, as well. When I think of what Christ has done for me, what he endured on the cross so that I could have everlasting life, I find it hard to complain and easy to be filled with gratitude. Whether dealing with a blister at mile twenty-five, a coworker with a bad attitude, or the daily balancing act of work, family, laundry, cleaning, cooking, and volunteering, I count my blessings and am grateful that I can handle it. I thank God that he gave me the ability, desire, and enjoyment of running!

Ellen

Think It Through

1. In what ways has your running improved since you began?

2. How have you grown and matured in your Christian life?

3. In what faith areas have you been coasting, taking it easy? Why?

4. What can you do to improve your “love, faith, service, and patient endurance”?

On Running

What causes stress and anxiety in competition?

Anxiety is an emotional response to stresses that can consist of combinations of feelings, cognitions, and physiological changes. A number of factors can cause stress and anxiety in a sporting situation. A person may be afraid of defeat, lack confidence in his or her ability, or have a form of stage fright (fear of performing in front of others). Anxiety may be heightened by the intensity of the competition, the importance of the event (and consequences of defeat), and the fear of the unknown. A certain level of anxiety is normal and may even help the athlete do better. But great anxiety can be detrimental, almost paralyzing.