I hate running. At least I used to.
I was always the kid in school who dreaded the days in gym when we had to run laps. I wasn’t particularly out of shape, per say. I took dance and even wanted to grow up and be a choreography at one point but I always hated running. I hated the way it made me feel like a couldn’t breathe. I hated the monotony of it. I hated everything about it.
So how in the world did I go from hating running to voluntarily signing up to run a half marathon?
It’s been a journey, but a much different, much more meaningful one, than I expected.
At certain times in the past, I’ve dabbled with trying to get into running. My sister and I even did a 5k a few years ago but it’s never really “stuck”. So why now? Why has it stuck this time?
One of the things God has really shown me across the past few years is how important it is to do hard things-to do things that seem very difficult or that I’m afraid of. Getting my doctorate, traveling to different countries and even choosing to pursue adoption are all examples of this concept. Instead of just saying no, I’ve deliberately tried to make a habit of saying, “why, not?” That’s not to say, that my fear or nervousness about the situation went away. It was still there. I just made a deliberate decision to put the thing I knew I was supposed to do as higher priority than my fear.
When this type of situation has come up in my life, I’ve sense God telling me, “Just make the decision to do it, put the work in that it requires, and I’ll take care of the rest.” God has grown me more during the times when He’s prompted me to pursue something out of the ordinary than at any other time in my life.
So, I guess about a year ago, a light bulb went off. What would happen if I applied the same, “do hard things”, “why, not?” concept to my health and fitness? Well I guess you can figure out where that path led me. I decided to put my dislike of running and anxiety about being able to run for 13.1 miles as a lower priority than something I felt was a worthwhile thing to do. Honestly, it was a thing I ultimately needed to do make myself a more healthy person.
The experience of training for and then running a half marathon changed me in more ways than I could have imagined. Here are just a few of the things I learned:
1. I know it seems trite, but I really learned the meaning of the phrase, “anything worth doing is worth doing well”. Before beginning the training for the half, I hadn’t ever really stuck with an exercise routine for more than a couple of months. The fact that I ended up putting about 6 months’ worth of training into the race really helped me to see how worthwhile setting and reaching my goal was.
2. Perseverance isn’t really perseverance unless you actually stick with something even when it’s tough. You have to keep on even when you don’t want to do it. There were many times during my training that I didn’t want to run but I knew I had a race I had paid money for and a goal I wanted to reach. I didn’t want to waste that. I had a prize before me and I was the only person who could stop myself from getting that prize. (1 Corinthians 9:24)
3. Developing strength requires resistance. I set a deadline and a goal for myself. When we don’t use our muscles, they become weak and wither away. As much as the deadline of the race was pulling at me to get my workouts in, it was also pulling at me spiritually to build my faith in knowing God would give me the strength to complete what I’d set out to do.
4. Even though we technically compete as individuals we are all a part of the big crowd of those running the race. In both a literal and an abstract sense you have however many people moving towards the same goal. Some get there faster than others but, ultimately, we all are moving in the same direction with the same goal in mind-to finish the race. This so represents how the body of Christ should function. There’s comfort, strength and inspiration in knowing you’re not alone.
5. The things I do, have far more impact on others around me than I realize. It was a pretty inspiring thing when that first person came back past us towards the finish line. I may have gotten a little choked up. We all cheered and kept moving forward. We all knew, personally, how much work crossing that finish line represented. It wasn’t just about crossing a finish line but about all of the work and sweat that led up to that particular moment in time. That first person provided, even though he may not have known it, inspiration for all of us slow people who finished a couple of 
hours after he did. By God’s grace, He has allowed me and my husband to provide a little inspiration to our own children. Every time we go running or even dress like we might go run, they each say, “I want to go running” or as Presley says, “I go running which you.” 🙂 They seek to emulate us so much so that they even want to dress like us when we run (see included picture of Kathleen. She put on her rainbow leg warmers the other day because she wanted to be “like daddy” when he wears his compression socks for running). Kathleen will even be running in her very first 5k race with us and other members of the family during the 2017 Disney Princess half marathon weekend.
6. In doing hard things, God does two important things-He develops our faith in that specific situation but also sets us up to continue on the journey past that particular circumstance.
There’s more that I could share but I should probably save it for another time.
I hope in some way this rant has set off some sort of light bulb moment in you. I hope it makes you think, “maybe I could do that thing that I think is impossible.” I hope it makes you remember that God is the one who sets these things in motion and gets you through tough times (Hebrews 12:2).
Mostly, I hope it inspires you to not run away from the hard stuff but to welcome it and see where God takes you. I’m living proof that God can do some pretty amazing things if we will step out in faith, put the work in and trust God with the rest.
Adventure awaits. Step out. Don’t be afraid. God will definitely use your step of faith to grow you to be more like Him. You may get an added bonus and find that that thing you hated or were afraid of is something you actually enjoy if you will just trust God to use it as He sees fit.