Running

I’ve always wanted to be a runner. Not a shuffler. You know the kind of person who is moving down the road but barely picking up their feet. Does that really count as running? I know, who am I judge? At least they’re out there moving. I wish I was a runner.

We thought Annie might be a runner. Growing up she was a bit gangly, all arms and legs, but there was a moment when she pulled it together and ran. Okay, she came in last place, but at least she finished the race. I’ve never even run in a race.

When I was in college, being a compliant sort, I put on the ‘freshman fifteen’ (and then some). In the fall of my junior year, I went to the doctor to ask for help in losing weight. He put me on an appetite suppressant and told me to run a mile every day. Sixteen laps of the gym was a mile. I was compliant. I lost the weight. It felt good. I looked good. But I never felt like a runner. My task was to get around the gym sixteen times, no less and certainly no more.

I watch the women who run marathons or triathlons with a certain kind of envy. Of course, I envy their ability, drive, and commitment, but more than anything I envy their bodies. Even when I was ten, I was not built like that. There’s always been just too much of me to be a really good runner. Too much thigh. Too much belly. And way, way, way too much bosom. I could go into all the reasons why this is a problem, but I will leave it to your imagination and humor to figure it out yourself.

I decided to put a “verse of the day” thing up on my Facebook page. I thought it would be a good thing to have verse to focus on each day, but that it also might give me some fodder to write about. It is where all this thought about running came from. Here’s today’s verses:
13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it,[d] but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. (Philippians 3:13-14, NLT)

Reading this got me to thinking about why runners run. I’m sure there’s almost as many answers as there are runners. For many it’s about the rush that comes from pressing one’s body to go the distance. For some it’s probably about the win, the thrill of victory. There are probably as many, if not more, reasons that people would give for not running.

It’s funny, sitting here thinking about running, I don’t really want to be a runner. That’s probably why I’m not. Metaphorically, I’ve been running all my life: moving fast and traveling the same road, over and over again. And why? For the prize or because I like the running. I think my answer is, yes.

Part of the running is about the prize. But what prize? Is the prize some object to be gained when one crosses the finish line first? Or is the prize just crossing the finishing line? Early in Paul’s writings he admonishes the Corinthians to run so as to win the prize (1 Corinthians 9:24). But at the end of his life his focus seems to just be on finishing well: I have fought the fight; I have finished the race (2 Timothy 4:7). Is that a perspective that comes with age or maturity? It makes sense to me. I want to run the race the way the writer of Hebrews encourages us to: with perseverance.

And I will need that perseverance because I will be running the race like a turtle. Once I would have avoided that kind of thinking, opted to be more like the rabbit: flitting, flirting, fast, fast, fast. Once I would have seen the slow plodding crawl of the turtle as reluctance and laziness. Not now. Now I see it as deliberate, purpose-full. And I have a hunch, by being purposeful I will accomplish way more than I ever did with my willy, nilly rushing around.

So that leaves me back at wondering about those “runners” shuffling down the road, two steps faster than a walking pace. Maybe they’ve really figured it out. Not everyone will rise on wings as eagles, run and not be wear. Some will walk and not grow faint—they will run with perseverance. And they will finish the race which is great prize. I’m heading out. Wanna run with me?