The 26.2 Healing Journey: Race Day

We huddled as night turned to day, each of us ready for our own unique journey.

I knew in the early miles that the marathon would give me more life lessons. My healing journey had gotten me to here, but the run itself was going to continue the teaching.

So, I listened. And here is what I learned.

Replace Win vs. Lose with Winning Your Own Race

The wonderful thing about running races is that everyone wins. Of the hundreds of us lining up for the marathon, each person toes the line with a chance to beat their own expectations, limitations and self-doubt. We all run with a chance to overcome - addiction, depression, and anything else we may be struggling with. Each person is engaged in a competition to see what incredible new things they will accomplish today. In this sense, the race clock and one’s place in the race fade into the background, formalities to record the event. This week, when life tempts you into a “win vs. lose” mentality, you can choose instead to focus on winning your own race.

Patience and Rest = Work

The first half of a marathon is a very unique place. Most of my mental energy over the first miles was focused not on speeding up, but on slowing down. You run this part of the race in a way that seems uncomfortably slow so that your body is able to run the entire distance. The first 13 miles remind that in a world that asks us to “go hard, all the time” that there are times where the best thing we can do is to hold back and become patient. There will be moments, as there were in my own head during the race’s opening miles, where you dismiss yourself and your effort, as we have been trained to see rest and patience as un-important and even as a failure. In actuality, finding time for rest may be the most important work we do this week.

 The beauty of leaving our comfort zone

Despite my months of hard and despite my meticulous attention to nutrition and hydration on race day, my body and mind started to fatigue with eight miles to go in the marathon. From a competitive running perspective, this is where the race unraveled. My mile splits slowed considerably. My dreams of finishing fast vanished. From a life perspective, however, this is where the most important lessons were being taught. Life took me from my comfort zone and reminded me that I was not in control. Embrace those moments of struggle this week. They are a gift, a place where you can see what cannot be seen when we are in our comfort zone.

The most important part of healing is not crossing the finish line, but rather, crossing the starting line

At 3^rd and Tijeras, we all gazed at the road ahead of us.

The horn sounded and the race began. Over the next sixty seconds, hundreds of feet crossed from one side of the starting line where you could still turn back, to the other side of the starting line where we committed to the journey.

By crossing the starting line, each of us was finishing a journey that took us through doubt, injury and other hurdles unique to each person.

The journey

to my healing

to your healing

to our healing

both starts and finishes

when we cross the starting line

 

Celebrating with friends and family at the finish!