I'm a Runner - Chapter Four

If at First You Don't Succeed

Fast forward one year and we are back from our second mini-marathon with fresh aspirations of becoming a runner. It happened again. The crowd of 30,000 plus runners, the excitement, seeing people running and thinking, "Man, if he can do it..."

This time I knew enough to know that I would need some help and inspiration. So I took out a subscription to "Runner's World" and began to read about running. Their suggestion for people like me was to start by running for a minute and walking for a minute. Or two. Or three. You know, whatever you can handle. And maybe start with city block and work your way towards a half a mile goal. We live in the country and one constant is telephone poles. So I decided to run past one pole and walk past two and work my way up. Now, the photo above is not me. Maybe when I drop 30 pounds. It is a screen saver that I used to inspire myself as I started running. Note the long empty road ahead...

So I took the advice that I read, along with coaching from Laurie, and increased the running to walk ratio until I ran my first half-mile, my first mile and finally my first 5K distance. For me that took several months. But what a tremendous sense of accomplishment each time I ran a little bit further! I didn't worry about speed so much. OK, honestly when December hit I decided that while running was fine and dandy, the wind in the country wasn't. So I took a hiatus until the end of January and began working to be ready for the May 4 race. I was up to the 5K distance by mid April, so I felt pretty sure I could at least finish without walking! This would be my first organized sporting event ever with real live spectators who weren't all directly related to the participants.

We got a hotel in Indy the evening before the race, picked up our packets and tried to get to sleep that night. Early the next morning in the hotel lobby, where I had gone for my free breakfast, I met another runner. He asked me which corral I was in and I said I was running the 5K. "Oh," he snorted, "That's not even running!"

Well, now, I hadn't put in all those miles to let that get me down. And really, that's how it goes, whether it is running or any other worthy thing, somebody is likely to say something, well, insensitive.

Funny things that happened. We got down to the staging area early and were standing in line for the Porto-potty when the PA announcer said, "Runners, remember to attach your timing chip to your shoe with the plastic tie that was in your packet." I looked down and NO TIMING CHIP! I had left it in the hotel. Since the 5K start followed the half-marathon start, I had just enough time to run back to the car, drive to the hotel, pick up the chip, drive back to a much farther away spot, and run back to the start line. I figure all that running was about 5K!

I'll share how I did in my next post. But here are a few lessons learned in the year prior to my first 5K.

• It really helps to have a coach when you are trying something new and challenging. Somebody who has done it before to provide knowledge and inspiration. For me that was the magazine and my wife, not in that order!
  
  
• There's just a lot of slogging involved in any worthwhile goal, but it is worth it.



• Don't listen to the naysayers.



• Start with what you can do and move on from there.

Whether it is running or becoming more active in missions, those things hold true. (I told you I was going to relate this to my passion for missions) I think in the church we sometimes set the goal so high that people just don't try. They see the missionary as someone they could never be. But I believe God calls every believer to be a "missionary." That is, one who is on a mission. I think we have a hard time finding coaches to show us how to do that, and I think we are not short on naysayers. But if we start simple and work our way up, the slogging that is involved at times is worth it, especially when we see the results!