DNF – That’s what’s with it!
He did not finish!!!
Here’s his excuse. “I set out to run the 26.2 miles at 3:30 pace. That meant I would finish in 3 hours and 30 minutes. At 13.1 miles I was on a 3:40 pace and unlikely to finish in less than four hours. Since I’d run that particular Marathon in a similar time in previous years there was nothing to prove just finishing it. So, at mile 14 I left the course and walked to the finish line.”
Here are some of his reflections.
“What have I learned participating in dozens of Marathons over the span of more than thirty years? I could write a book full of answers to that question.
“What have I learned from this Marathon that I should have remembered from others?
“I’ve learned that you run within yourself. If you haven’t been able to maintain a sub – 4 hour pace in training, or recent races, you’ll not likely do so in this one. I didn’t want to accept that. So I burned out half way through.
“I’ve learned that though you run alone you’re never really alone. My Wife invested a lot of time and effort to be there that day to support me. And she was genuinely disappointed in my failure to finish. She believed in me so much that she just assumed I would achieve what I said I would. So did our Son. So did the people who pledged to support me in the event. And I let them down. Not because I failed to finish but because I failed to make realistic promises. Sometimes people say things like, “You can do whatever you set your mind to!” That is true. But only insofar as you are willing to do the hard work involved in preparing to do whatever it is you’ve set out to do. Only if you’re willing to measure your progress realistically at points along the way and accept the limits of each stage in your development. I did train for this Marathon. I ran a 21 miler two weeks before the event. But the course I took had a lot of stops and rough terrain and I adjusted my finishing time to those factors. As a result I did not have a true measure of the pace I was capable of over that distance. My Half Marathon time revealed that I had simply not properly prepared. And, by failing to let people know all the facts I knew in my own mind, I misled them. Even a solo event is a Team thing. “No man is an island.” We ignore that to the injury of ourselves and others.
“I’ve learned that you cannot let disappointment distract you. This was a big event for me. But, measured against the larger issues of life, it was nothing more than a bad day on the golf course for a “duffer.” Of course, for some duffers, that could be a life altering experience. But really! I got up the next morning. Our dog still loved me. Our Son’s colleagues, who watched the mornings goings on with interest, insisted that I was a “stud” to run a Half Marathon in 1:51. My Wife still assured me she loved me. And, above all else, our Lord, “the God of Second Chances,” still loved me. My passion for the larger things of life like loving the people in my world and serving our Lord by caring for them was still strong. And I was every bit as energized to live for the higher purposes I’m giving my life to as I’ve ever been.
“I’ve learned, as well, that even when you’re running as fast as you can through life you’re never out of our Lord’s field of vision or the range of his hearing. That day, even while I was running over my head, I was aware of his presence and in intimate personal conversation with him. Later, walking sheepishly past the people who, thinking I was still in the race, were cheering me on, I was aware of his Spirit’s reassurance deep in my consciousness. We talked about life’s tests. I admitted my disappointment. I contemplated the thought that I was “a quitter.” He seemed to be reminding me that it mattered more that I stayed with the commitments I’d made to live for him and love him and the people he brought into my life from day-to-day than with this. I chuckled, and thought maybe he did too, as I watched the plethora of people in the stands and on the course; all shapes and sizes; making every imaginable kind of fashion statement; all, like myself, preoccupied with their own private experience of life in microcosm. And I asked him to forgive me for the presumption that my perception of life could possibly define the limits of ultimate reality. I prayed he’d enlarge my vision of him and the meaning of what was happening in that or any other of life’s moments.
“And so, today, 21 days after the “Coca Cola Zero Rock’n Roll Marthon,” I am in final preparation for an 8 day Speaking Engagement at Wesley Acres Camp and Conference Centre (note the spelling) 200 miles East of Toronto, Canada. The Camp will run from Saturday, July 2 through Sunday July 10. This and events like it are what the mission I’ve been called to is all about. And I go with determination to “finish the course” hoping that someone – many some ones – will get a taste of “LIFE a la Jesus” and leave singing, “Now I have found what I’m lookin’ for!”
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