Don't Run Alone...
Training for a marathon is not for the faint at heart. We started training in June and ran in October. It was literally 18 of the most grueling weeks of our lives. There were days when we struggled to get up in the morning and run. There were weeks where we were injured and physically couldn't run. There were moments when running seemed a chore and we just wanted to give up. But we ran and reminded ourselves we weren't doing this thing alone.
The night before we left for our 12 hour drive to Chicago, we invited friends and family to join us at a local park and run/walk the final 2 miles of our training. Honestly, I wasn't sure anyone would show up, but when we got there, there were about 25 people. They had come to remind us that we weren't alone in the great challenge ahead of us.
The next morning we piled into our car at about 5:30am and we began a 12 hour drive that would include about 15 stops (4 within the first hour for someone to use the bathroom who will remain nameless), a lot of singing, opportunities to work on our mad DJ skills, binge eating snacks (when you are running 26.2 miles you have permission to eat everything), drinking way too much coffee, and having some incredible life giving conversations along the way. Those 12 hours were full of 4 friends reminding each other that we were in this thing together.
A few hours after we arrived at our hotel, we found ourselves at a Team World Vision Dinner, where we were surrounded by hundreds of runners running for the same purpose...to bring clean water to people in Africa. As I looked around that room, I saw seasoned runners, newbie runners (like us), and runners of all shapes, sizes and experiences. We were reminded that night that we would need each other on the journey that next day...we wouldn't be alone...we would run together.
At 4:15am race morning, I was reminded again that we weren't alone as my sister and brother in law, who had flown in from Boston to cheer us on, picked us up at our hotel so we wouldn't have to worry about parking. They got up because they believed in what we were doing and wanted to be a part of the journey and honestly, we would realize just how much we needed them at mile 19 when we saw their faces in the crowd, cheering us on, pushing us to finish strong.
They say that only .5% of the US Population will ever run a marathon. After doing it...I realize why. It's ridiculously hard. At the start of the race, you've put in all this training, you are running on adrenaline, there are thousands of people cheering your name, there's free Gatorade everywhere, and life couldn't be any better. Until you hit mile 19. At mile 19, you start questioning if you trained enough, you wish you could buy a shot of adrenaline, you want to punch all the strangers cheering your name, thinking about taking another sip of lemon-lime Gatorade makes you want to vomit, and you wonder if you can get some of your $175 dollar race fee back if you just don't run the last 8 miles.
When I was 3 years old, I road my bicycle down the stairs into a cement cellar door. That may have felt better than I felt at mile 19.
Here's the thing. We didn't stop running.
We didn't stop running because we weren't running alone.
There were several times in the middle of the race that I think had we not been running together, we would have just given up. We would have walked. We would have thrown in the towel. We would have decided in our heads that it just wasn't worth it. There was just one problem. We had made the decision to do this thing together. We had friends at home cheering us on. We had family in the crowd who believed in us. We were a part of Team World Vision...a team trying to make a small difference in the world. We were four friends who had discovered a journey that would turn out to be so much bigger than ourselves...a journey that would somehow remind others half way around the world that they weren't alone. We couldn't stop running...because we were in this thing together.
If there is one thing that I have learned from running a marathon, it is this, "Don't run alone." Since returning from Chicago, it has been a lot harder to stay on top of my running. There are no teammates checking in to see if I have put in my training. There are no world vision emails reminding me each week of why I run. I have probably only run 5-10 times. It's hard to run alone.
The same holds true outside of running. We need people in our life that will be willing to do life with us. We need people who will push us, challenge us, and call us to something greater than ourselves. We need people to celebrate the mile markers that we accomplish, that push us when we struggle to get out of the funk we find ourselves in, and who are just willing to pray for us. We need encouragers on the journey...friends we can laugh with, be authentic with, and dream big dreams with. Those kind of friends will be the ones who are willing to do what the rest of the world will not. Those kind of friends are world changers.
We finished the marathon in 5 hours 29 minutes. We drank a lot of gatorade. And we didn't walk (except through those crazy gatorade stations...have you tried to drink and run at the same time?). What was even better than finishing 26.2 miles was the fact that all of those friends that were a part of our journey helped us to raise close to $8000...enough for 160 people to have water for life. Thank goodness we didn't run alone.
Who are you running with?
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