For the average person, running for 26.2 straight miles seems like a meaningless and impossible task and a waste of time and not worth all of the training and hard work. For me it is the ultimate challenge of my physical and mental and spiritual fitness. I have always been a runner and involved in sports and high fitness activities such as soccer, track, snowboarding and biking. Running has always been such an enjoyable activity for me; Powering your own body through different terrains and across distances using the reactions of the different muscles and bones making up your body. Along your running journey you are exploring new areas and stimulating your senses as you pass by places you have never been or noticing new things on a route through your own familiar neighborhood.
Though running has always been enjoyable for me and I used to be involved in racing in high school and a few times in college, I had never pushed myself to that pinnacle race, a marathon. Though I had been considering it the past few years, I had never been able to commit to the timing or physical shape necessary to compete in such a race. At the beginning of the world race however, I was running with Teresa, my squad leader and talking to her about my goal of running a marathon someday. She mentioned that in August, there is a marathon in Cambodia that runs through Angkor Wat and according to our schedule we should be there that weekend! I said that if we are there, that would be an incredible way to knock off one of my huge physical goals through one of the ancient wonders of the world! And sure enough, 8 months later and we are in Siem Reap just a day before the marathon.
If you know anything about the structure of the race and some of the rules, you know that training for a marathon is not one of the easiest free time activities. First of all, finding that kind of time required to log some good training miles in can be difficult, and finding that time during a cool part of the day is even harder. With the world race, flexibility is the key because schedules can be thrown around and tasks can come about so quickly or things can be scheduled only giving you little breaks in between. So finding a hour and a half opening giving you enough time to log 10 miles, cool down, and shower is really hard to come by. Secondly, these lengthy free periods need to line up with some of the cooler hours of the day. We are living in perpetual summer in some of the most humid climates known to man, so running between 9 am and 7 pm are borderline suicide. A second problem with training for a marathon is the need to train at your own pace, and personally pushing yourself to and past your limits. On the world race, you must always abide by the buddy system, so going out on your own to push yourself to new paces and new distances is only feasible if you have someone faster and stronger than you who is willing to push you to these new goals. Not only that but they need to be in the mood and willing to spend their free time participating in long runs, which most people don’t find enjoyable. A third problem, is sometimes the terrain or conditions you are living in. There isn’t always a nice green park you are living right by or quiet neighborhood streets to cruise up and down. Sometimes you are in a very urban area on a mountain and finding a safe and casual running route can be very hard. A fourth reason that the race may not be the best place to prepare for a marathon is lack of nutritional needs. You don’t have much control over what you eat on the race and it’s often not high in proteins and other supplements needed to help replace what is lost on those hard workouts to make you stronger. Often you might be running on a calorie deficit because of the extra energy being exerted. Given all of these hindrances to proper marathon training, I wasn’t so sure if my goal was realistic and if I would actually be able to push myself to a level of physical endurance. But God gave me months and ministries that provided so many of these things that you would often lack on the Race because He also had a plan of teaching me so much through this training season.
Serious training started for me in Malaysia. Up to that point I had probably only run around 50-60 miles on the race. It really was only possible when all four of those things lined up for me, and then I would run more out of a half hearted effort to not completely lose shape. But I went into my month in Malaysia with a goal of running at least 6 times a week, and logging at least a hundred miles. When we first arrived at our ministry, my heart leapt for joy as I saw that we were living at our ministry site and it was a small, flat gated community. This meant that objections 2 and 3 above were no longer issues. I am free to be anywhere within our ministry site alone at anytime, which meant I would be able to run at my own pace and push myself as long as I needed to. Sometimes that meant I would have to run 7 boring laps around the building for 1 mile, but at least I was able to do it anytime I needed to. Objection number 1 was finding enough time to train. Our schedule was all over the place in Malaysia and kept us busy from 8 am to 8 pm with a few breaks. But one of my main ministries was playing soccer with the boys! This meant everyday I was putting on my running clothes and running shoes to kick around with the boys for over an hour. I even found a couple boys who liked running and they would run to the soccer facility with me. And after an intense soccer match, I found myself in running clothes, sweaty, and the heat of the day was dropping, so I could easily log a few more miles just running around the compound. Leaving Malaysia, I wasn’t sure if I would have such a great set up for training as I had in Malaysia, but once again as we pulled up to our school in Mae Ai, I leapt for joy as I saw the huge campus we would be living and working at. So once again objection 2 and 3 were out of the question as I quickly found a nice quarter mile lap that took me around the school grounds. Sure, it got old as you ran around it the 40th time, but at least you were able to run at your own pace and distance on flat, safe terrain. Now the only question was will I be able to find the time and have enough food to supplement my training. I needed to start getting serious about my miles now too as the marathon is less than a month away. But the Lord provided for me here too. He gave me some of the worst living conditions I have had on the race so far. This meant that I never wanted to sleep in in our bug infested, damp, humid, bungalow. So I often found myself waking up, involuntarily, at 6:30 in the morning. This gave me enough time to get my 10 mile workout in before our 8 am flag raising. And food was never an issue those two months. Both places fed us as much as we needed at lunch and we found very cheap roti and pad Thai places if I ever felt low on my calorie intake.
So the Lord really provided these couple months leading up to the marathon in making sure I am physically ready for the 26.2 miles. But as I mentioned, He had so much He wanted to show me through this training season. I had always felt closer to God when I was in shape and working out. Those times of strenuous workouts and long moments of physical labour, give you lots of time for mental and spiritual reflection. My running time is my prayer time. It’s the time when I feel I can focus and talk to God in the best manner. I have so much to be thankful for every time I propel myself forward using my own strength. The fact that we have bodies that we can control in that way is such a blessing and such a gift. And as I found out with my longer runs, so much of running is mental. You can easily run 3 miles, but being able to push yourself past those easy miles into the 5 or 8 or 10 mile range is where it gets hard. You know you can physically do it because you just ran 3 and you would just have to double or triple that. It is the same motion over and over but your mind tells you you want to stop. Through prayer and spending that time with God and asking Him to strengthen your muscles and your bones every stride helps incredibly. It almost becomes hard to stop because you can get caught up in some great conversations and prayers with our Heavenly Father. In Thailand, I mentioned my living conditions were rough so sleeping in past 6:30 was undesirable, but it was also so desirable and exciting to get up at that time just to talk to God. It was such a great way to start the day casting all of my worries and fears of the day or the near or distant future on Him. Through this time with Him a lot was revealed about who I am and what my life will be like and why He has called me where I am. There were also so many other great parallels shown to me between running and life. Mainly I was shown what true perseverance was, pushing through the times it really hurt and solely asking for God to strengthen me and pull me through those times. Also, He showed me what dedication, love, and pursual are. Through striving after a goal and finding a deep love for running even through periods of hard, unattractive times, I still felt the strong reward of being dedicated to my goal and obtaining high results. It hasn’t always been easy and lovely and there’s even been times of feeling like I won’t be prepared enough, but I have made it through those hard times and am almost at the rewarding day of running the race. This so parallels our Christian faith and walk. So often I feel like certain things won’t be worth it or I won’t be qualified enough and that I shouldn’t even start, but with every try, you get stronger and without faith that God has this incredible race marked out for us, it is hard to see how each individual workout, or each individual goal fits into the overall picture. But with perseverance and dedication and love and pursuit, that will be a very rewarding race we have run.
Race day is tomorrow, and having never run more than 13 miles before, I’m not quite sure what to expect running 26 to be like. I know it will be hard, but I know it will be worth it. Just like training for it the last two months has been worth it. I feel like I am almost in the best shape of my life and I have found a way to truly love running and it being a way to intimately connect with the Lord. So if nothing else tomorrow, I just look forward to a very long conversation through Angkor Wat with God.
