The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Community: Everything I need to know in life I ...

Lesson #1 - Life is a marathon, not a sprint.

A marathon by its nature is an endurance race that tests and tries
the body, eventually taking it beyond its breaking point. Once Glycogen
stores are depleted, and electrolytes are burned up, and proteins that
the body possessed are consumed, to continue the body converts any
sugars that remain into lactic acid, and starts to consume muscle, fat,
and anything else it can feed on. But a marathon isn’t over until you
reach a distance of 26 miles 385 yards. At that point the body is
-well- broken. It doesn’t appear to matter what your level of
conditioning. At the end of the run, you are broke; spent. From about
mile 20 (officially referred to as “The Wall”), what draws you toward
the finish line is the residual effects of months of long training
runs, the confidence gained as a result of that training which says
that in spite of what your body has been telling you for the last
several miles, you can do it, and then ultimately shear strength of
will that you muster up from somewhere deep inside. Even elite
Marathoners are broken and rarely will even go for more than a walk to
the car for nearly 2 weeks after a race while the body heals itself.

On October 5th, 2007 I ran the Chicago Marathon, my first. Out of
approximately 45,000 entrants, nearly 10,000 didn’t start as a result
of the weather, fear, or various other reasons. But more startling,
nearly 1/3 did not finish the race they trained for months to run. The
weather conditions made for a brutal day. 88 degrees (a record high)
and extreme high humidity made it impossible to cool your core
temperature down. More than 300 were sent to the hospital and hundreds
more were treated in medical tents located throughout the course.

This leaves many to ask how someone can be crazy enough to run a
Marathon. And therein lies the wonder of of it all. A Marathon is sort
of the “Holy Grail” of running for many runners. Causing all who run to
make special accommodations and sacrifices of time, money, diet, and
creature comforts to do this one special thing and join the less than
1/10 of 1% who will ever run a Marathon in their lifetime. And yet,
even as I say that, we find a special kind of insanity found in a very
few runners who train, live, and run “Ultra-Marathons” (anything over
26 miles, but often as much as 100 miles). This special breed has
learned to shut off pain receptors so they can push to new levels of
body destruction. But I regress, so let me get back to my analogy.

As with endurance running, life requires the same thing from us that a
marathon does; to endure to the end, neither quiting at any point in
the middle, nor cutting corners. And while there are potentially many
obstacles to our progress that may act as challenges, and can either
block our path or conversely act as stepping stones. We must plan for,
and then work with the end result - the goal - in mind.

It is to that end that we start life’s race. first to have the goal
of finishing the race, then to plan and execute with that goal ever on
the top of our minds, adapting as necessary, and fighting through the
challenges, obstacles, temptations before us, and to finish the race
honorably. And, it is to that end that I pray for the vision, and
focus, and strength to endure, for myself and for each member of my
Family.

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Everything I need to know in life I learned from running a Marathon

Dec 18, 2007 3:52 AM

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