I know we all have DV fatigue, but I’m going to try to milk every last drop out of this Marathon experience. I wrote about the race, and about the pre- and post-race happenings, but this is something even more personal, and I hesitate to share it. Virtually no one outside of my family knows this side of me, as I keep it very private (haha everyone laughs, as he publishes it in his blog). I know this sort of thing puts off a lot of people, and people will look at and judge me differently after learning this, but I think it would be disingenuous and morally dishonest if I didn’t include it here. Some will scoff, some will discount, and that’s fine. If you don’t like reading religious ideas or hearing about spirituality, you should stop reading now. But I figured Christmas (remember, it’s supposed to be a religious holiday?) was as good a time as any to reveal this part of me and my running.
I was raised a Christian Scientist, and still consider myself a Christian Scientist. My family attends the local Christian Science church. I’m not the most ardent, or least hypocritical, of the flock, but I try to live my spirituality as best I know how, at the point of my current understanding.
In the end, the marathon, or any run, IS just a run, but it has as much meaning as you put into it and as much meaning as you get out of it. I put in a lot and I got out a lot. And what’s the saying about success? 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration? This is that other 1%.
Disclaimers and explanations aside, while I was running I thought of many things, but some of the most helpful ideas were these:
All of this spirituality is not to say that I didn’t train long and hard, and that the race itself wasn’t a lot of extremely hard, physical work. But I’ve already written about that, and this is the hidden side.
It’s rare in our world of Target, DirecTV and Japanese. Food. Fast. that we encounter any obstacles. When we do, we usually complain, or file a lawsuit. But it would almost be pointless if running wasn’t difficult at some point. Without the challenge and rewards of improving and overcoming, we might as well run around aimlessly in circles.
Thinking back on the race and what I’ve learned, I’ve discovered another reason why I love to run. Because it’s hard. I love to run because it is difficult, and at times overwhelming. When you face that pain, and persevere, the reward is oh so sweet.
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Spring racing season is over for me after running today’s Bun Run 5k. To that in a moment, but let’s call the season a success. The goal was to get faster in the shorter distances this Spring and I did that. Four races, 3 PRs. The lone non-PR race, the Capitol 10,000, was still a [...]
I’d like to polish the Knob more often, hopefully this is a start. I still have goals, and I thought it was beneficial in the past to recount them here, so I’d like to resume that habit. It’s tiresome to be so navel-gazing all the time though, so I’d like the Knob to branch out [...]
Well what’s this? A web log, or as the kids call it these days, a b’log? Why yes, yes it is. Keeping the knob on life support, hanging on by a thread. It’s been a couple months since I last posted some gibberish about cat pictures, so how about a return to the days [...]
I have been noticing your post marathon presence and at first i thought it was just post marathon sub 3 delirious joy, but now i’m thinking that maybe something else is going on. Do you feel like this experience has altered your core in any way? You carry yourself differently. Just curious.
December 26th, 2007 at 10:30 pmHmmmm … well now I’m really curious about what you mean because I’m not sure if you mean that in a positive or negative way, but I’ll assume it’s positive. My answer would take another blog post, but my closest childhood friend sent me an email after the race that has meant a lot to me. Among other things he wrote,
“It really is a life changing event. I see and hear it in my wife every time she talks about it with others. Even though she’s humble about it, it has given her a lot of confidence. You’ll be catching yourself saying, “if I can run a marathon, I can do…” You are a runner now. Be proud forever and let it change you. You earned it.”
I’m not sure I’m self-aware enough to notice any difference. And if there is a difference, I think it may be short-lived.
However, one thing I have noticed is that I’m more secure in regards to others’ successes. I genuinely want to see people (even “certain” other people) succeed. I don’t feel threatened that they’ll “beat” me, even if they run faster. I’ll just be happy for them, hoping they get to experience the same thing I did, knowing their success can’t diminish mine.
So, long-winded answer … in some ways.
December 27th, 2007 at 10:21 amNever DV fatigue. Only knob withdrawal symptoms.
December 31st, 2007 at 1:19 pmThanks for sharing– running especially marathon distances interweaves all our selves(physical, emotional, spiritual) together- this is what I believe draws us back to the marathon. There is something that happens within, around, and through me and it sounds like you where we draw our strength/motivation/desire from our God as an extension of us, within us and beyond us.
Again thanks for sharing.
January 1st, 2008 at 12:02 pm[...] How should I handle comments? Fletcher asked an interesting question. I usually don’t respond to comments with a comment myself because people never go back to old posts and check for responses. But I don’t want to seem like I’m ignoring all you fine folk taking the time to interact on this interwebs. Normally if it’s something I want to address I do so in a direct email to the commenter or in my next post. But I often forget. So what do you Knobbers out there suggest? [...]
January 3rd, 2008 at 11:42 pmSorry, just saw your response to my question-been away. My impressions of your overall persona/psyche from brief interactions with you after Dallas is that this experience deepened and satisfied you in some elemental way that you hadn’t experienced before. It’s a good thing, just wondering if it was happening on a conscious level or not.
January 5th, 2008 at 5:49 am