Race Day

The Tallahassee Half-Marathon has come and gone and nobody died so we'll call it a good day. Actually, it turned out to be a fantastic day. The weather was absolutely perfect. I finished the race in 1 hour 54 minutes (8'42" pace) which by runners standards is noting to write home about but by my standards and considering the physical issues I've been dealing with over the last several months...it is progress.

Some thoughts about race day... I've been asked many times...and I ask myself all the time...why would you pay a fee to enter a race when you can go out and run the same course any day of the week for free. The answer is obvious...the t-shirt. NOT! There is something magical about race day. Race day does something to the mind and body that can not be duplicated when simply running by your self down the street. Prime example...my last 6 to 8 training runs before this event were miserable. I did not reach my distance goal a single time in any of them. And all of my distance goals were well below the race day distance. For example...one week prior to the goal I left to go on what I hoped would be a six mile run. I was back at the house after 1.5 miles.

And yet yesterday I ran the complete race virtually pain free. Something changes, emotionally and physiologically on race day. The excitement of knowing this is the real deal puts all the pain and discomfort so far from the center of focus that it is barely noticeable.

I believe this is where so many people miss it in the spiritual realm. For too many people Christianity is simply an exercise in training. Moral training, Bible training, theological training, lessons in politeness, whatever - all of that is just training. If a person never gets to the point where it is the ‘real deal’ for them than all they experience is training, which frankly can be miserable even in the Christian realm. Christianity can be a miserable experience when all we ever do is train and never get to race day.

Joining the race... In Christianity it is race day when we begin to give it away. As long as it continues to be about us…my morality, my memorization, my family, my church - than we are still in training. Let’s make this race day. Let’s make this the day we decide to give our lives away and be amazed at how much more exhilarating life becomes than just the training we’ve been doing. Let’s join the race!

Jesus makes it pretty clear in John 12:24-26 - if to you Christianity is all about you and your personal happiness…you are in for a miserable ride. When it becomes about you giving your life away for someone else…welcome to the race and watch the miraculous happen.

tags: triathlon