One of the most transforming experiences I have had was running a marathon. Before the marathon, I had never run more than about 5 miles at one time, I had no confidence that I could ever run 26.2 miles, and I had no desire to try. In a matter of 17 weeks, that all changed. How did such a change take place? It wasn’t a matter of will. You can’t just go out and run a marathon. The first person that ever did it dropped dead at 26.2 miles. The human body is built to run no more than about 20 miles. Something has to change to be able to finish and not curl up in the fetal position on the side of the road.
I was at my friend Joe’s house at a Christmas party in 2004. Here is what happened.
“I think I am going to run in the Little Rock marathon,” Joe said.
I plugged my ears, because I knew what was coming next.
Pulling out a training schedule, “Look, you are already doing the runs during the week; all you need to do is add a little longer run on the weekend.”
After several minutes of me resisting, Joe said in his typical encouraging way: “How about we do this first long run (6 miles) on Saturday.”
“Okay,” I said, “but I am not committing to running the marathon with you, just to running on Saturday.”
At the end of our Saturday run, I had run further than I ever had. “See, you did it,” Joe encouraged. “Yeah, but if this were the marathon, I would still have another 20.2 miles to go. No way,” I said.
I agreed to run with him the next Saturday, but was adamant that I was not committing to running the marathon. At the end of each longer and longer Saturday run, Joe would be so encouraging about what we did, and I would pessimistically remind him of how many more miles we would have to continue running to complete a freakin’ marathon. It didn’t seem to faze him, he just invited me to run with him the next Saturday.
As we followed training schedule, mileage of our long run gradually increased. I began to wonder if it would be possible for me to complete the marathon. I figured if I could get up to 16 miles, maybe it would be possible. With each long run, my confidence slowly increased.
In addition to the change in my confidence, my body was changing. Each long run was difficult, but every run after the long run became easier. Our longest run during the training was 20 miles. It was insane, but we did it. The 6-mile runs during the week became a piece of cake. I was not tired and still had lots of energy after those “short” runs. What little body fat I had was being sucked off. My weight dropped to what it was when I graduated from high school.
Interestingly, I did not lose that annoying middle age roll of fat on my waist. I had that same roll at the end of the marathon. I understand that evolution has programmed our bodies to retain body fat for emergencies, like a famine, but, what the heck, doesn’t running 26.2 miles constitute a physical emergency? What was my body saving that roll of fat for?
Come race day, the transformation was complete. My confidence was high and my body was literally twitching; it could wait to run. The transformation did not happen in the race. It happened in the training. The race was just the frosting on the cake. The race was insanely intense, starting about mile 17. It was like being on another planet.
How did that transformation take place? I had social support. I would never made it without Joe encouraging me. We set small goals. We only focused on the next long run. We had a plan; we followed a training program. I restructured my time so that I could work the training program.
Interestingly, some elements of the transformation persist four years later. I remain confident that I could run a marathon if I properly trained. Physically, I am now in no better shape that when I started my marathon training. Physical fitness must be maintained. Use it or lose it.
While I was in my marathon training, I often wondered what would happen if I dedicated myself to spiritual training like I did for the marathon. Why would we expect spiritual transformation to work differently than other life transformations? Maybe that erroneous expectation prevents the kind of spiritual transformation that we long for.
That thought led to one of my other “top five” transformation experiences (next post).
P.S. I highly recommend running a marathon, at least just once. You will experience radical changes. Marathon is life.
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