The Half Marathon
Have you ever trained for something? Maybe you swam competitively in school and had to train every day during the summer to prepare for the meets. Maybe you were in dance and had a hard routine to get down. Or maybe that hot dog eating contest required some serious stomach stretch training. Either way, I guarantee we’ve all spent a good chunk of time preparing for something.
Last year, a good friend of mine wanted to work out together. Great! Then it turned into running together. Then she asked if I’d train for a half marathon with her. My exact words were, “Mmmmm, I’ll run with you while you train, but there’s no way I’m running a half marathon.”
...I ran a half marathon almost 4 months later, and it turned me into a runner. I learned A LOT in those months of training - what I could and couldn’t eat the day before a run, what to wear depending on the temperature outside (<40 degrees calls for leggings), how to even my breathing no matter the incline or decline, etc.
Have you ever heard the saying, “Life is a marathon, not a sprint.”? We kind of brush that off when it’s on those posters or we see it on social media, but let’s think about it for a second. The greater and more rewarding things in life take time. I suppose another way to put it is “It’s about the journey, not the destination,” which is even cheesier if you ask me.
Think about it though. The things that have been the biggest blessing, reaped the most benefits, or taught you the most have also been things that took a long time. That friend you’ve had for 3 years now? It took time to get so close with them - trying to rush that relationship would’ve just made a deep relationship or ended it all together. That graduate degree didn’t take 1 year, it took 4, and you learned so much more in 4 years than you would have in 1. Or to take it back to the beginning of the post, learning that dance routine was difficult, maybe involved some tears and frustration, but it taught you that you’re capable and a good artist.
When we look back, we can see how training for the marathons in our lives impacted us more than the actual race. We can see how actually getting there was more critical than the end. I don’t remember everything about the actual half marathon race. That was just a couple hours of the many I spent training. I learned more in the 3.5 months getting there. The end just showed that I did it, but I had known I could already.
Today, I want to encourage you in your current frustration. You’ve been working towards something for weeks, months, years, and it seems like you’re getting nowhere. Remember that it isn’t about how quick it takes. The most rewarding things take time. Think back on your previous marathons. What do you remember the most?
Challenges/Points:
We’re all training for something, literally or not. It’s easy to get caught up in what the end will look like instead of what the journey looks like.
Training or the journey has more impact on us than making it to the end. We learn so much more in the in-between. The beginning and the end are the easiest pieces.
Think back on previous mini marathons of life as a way to encourage yourself about the current one.
Questions:
What was the last thing you trained for?
What are you working towards right now that is taking some time?
How can you remind yourself that sometimes the biggest rewards take the longest amount of time to reach?
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