Friday, September 24, 2004

Finishing the Race

Lately, I have been training for various runs, ranging from 12km to the full marathon which I hope to do at the end of this year. To think that it was only in July this year that I was barely able to last 10mins of jogging (yes, jogging, not running). Now, I am running something like one and a quarter hour, and I think I can still go on, just like Forrest Gump (how did he do it, anyway?).

Rewind to one year ago, in Mar 2003.

I was suddenly hospitalized for a very bad back pain. I was bent over and sideways, and just couldn't sit or walk straight. After being discharged from hospital, it relapsed at least thrice. The doctors said it has something to do with some muscle spasms, & I had to do physio-exercises, no running/jogging. I felt miserable then; I am not a physio-exercise guy, I am a push-up & chin-up guy, I love fitness exercises. In 1984 or 1985 at age 17/18, I did my first half-marathon with my father, and have been a fitness freak for most of my life, until this happened. Then came the good news: God healed me for good about half a year ago. As sudden as the pain came, it went away for good without warning.

Fast forward to Jul 2004.

Having been healed and relocated to a home near a reservoir, I started light 10-min jogs in July this year. On my first jog, I trip over my own shoes and fell. What an embarrassment! I know I need to and can do better. Why did I trip? I was not fit, and was shuffling my feet instead of lifting them up and running with "oomp".

Breaking the 10mins mark was tough for me, when my fitness level was way too low and my leg muscles unconditioned. When I was able to last more than 10mins, the 30mins mark became my next target, and initially, I felt like my whole body was melting at the end of 30mins, and almost blacked out once. However, once I surpassed the 30mins mark, there was no looking back. I aim for 45mins, then 1 hour, and now 1 and a quarter hour.

Fast forward to today, Sep 2004.

Each time I embarked on a run, I will tell myself that there are many reasons to give up, but just one reason to press on - to finish the race. Is this my own philosophy? No, I got it from the Bible, at least the part about finishing the race. You see, finishing the race means pressing on, and pushing ourselves towards the goal. This is not easy for most people in most situations in our day to day life. The tendency to give up at the slightest discomfort is always there, and I think we just have to learn to ignore such distractions, and stay focused.

If you haven't tried running before, or haven't run for a long time, try it. You will realise how much you can learn from a simple run. You make choices (how far to run, where to run, when to run), you set goals and plan how to reach them, you learn how to shut out distractions and stay focused, you learn when to change course when necessary, you learn when to accelerate and when to slow down. Best of all, you learn how to finish the race, and not give up.

Apply this to your life, to your relationship with God, your loved ones, and friends.

May God bless you, runners.

Category: Sounding Board, cf_

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