Training

I'm back in training for a race.....now I use those terms very loosely. I don't really consider myself any type of athlete, I really just do races to stay motivated as I see my waist line expand over the holiday/conference season. I hope to run in the Mardi Gras Half Marathon but we'll see if I actually make the goal. Regardless, I pulled out my little training chart last week and began to run again.

It's funny the lessons that I seem to learn in training and this time has been no exception. I ran 4 miles on Sunday and felt great - I could have gone at least one more. So today, when my little chart said 3.5 miles, I thought, "piece of cake". Well, not exactly. About a mile into my run I started getting a sharp pain in my side. This happens every time I start to train for something. Before I ran my first half marathon I would always quit when I got to that point and would never be able to significantly increase my mileage. What I learned when I trained for that race is that it may be painful and it may be ugly, but you have to push through the pain if you're going to make it for the long haul. Today when that pain started I was very tempted to quit but I kept going. After about another mile, it went away only to return in the last quarter mile.

As I was running down the street counting down the seconds until I hit the 3.5 mile mark, it struck me that life is a lot like that pain in the side. The challenges of life come and go and if we aren't able to push through the somewhat painful times, we won't have the training to make it on the long haul. There are some slightly painful things in my life right now and everything in me wants to avoid them or to even run from them, but who will I be in the end if I don't face them and continue down the path? Who will I be if I don't face what today holds so I can handle the things that come some day?

So, out the door I go - tying on my shoes and believing that the pain of today does matter - it is part of what gives me the endurance for the long haul.