On Running Your Own Race

The gun went off to start the 2011 Asheville Citizen-Times Half Marathon, and as is the case in most longer races, many of the runners took off like they were running a 5K. But 13.1 miles over incredibly hilly terrain requires patience, pace, and perseverance. Some people will never learn. I resisted the urge early on to push the pace beyond where I knew I needed to be. It's SO tempting to get caught up trying to hang with faster runners, because your ego kicks in and it urges you to bag your pre-race strategy of running your own race. I must admit I was tempted. I covered miles 1 and 2 in 11:43, came through a mostly up hill mile 3 in 18:49, and then realized I had moved out a bit fast. I settled back into a more reasonable pace, letting some of the guys around me "go" but hoping and inherently knowing most would come back to me later in the race. By mile 8, I was feeling great and realized I hadn't been passed by anybody in a long while....in fact, I started to see some of those guys I let go, their pace slowing as I blew by them. One by one I picked off runners who had moved out way too fast in the early stages of the race, and with a mile to go I had one more runner I wanted to pass - he was a younger guy (18) and we ran together for a bit, until the last hill before the finish. I pushed the pace and as we crested to the top with the finish line a mere 200 yards away, he pulled off to the my left, got on all fours, and started heaving up the breakfast that he could no longer keep down. I sprinted across the finish line feeling tired and spent but satisfied knowing that I had run a smart race, more importantly I had run MY race, meeting my goal time. I had compromised neither my finish nor my goal by trying to stay up with the faster runners early on.

Having run literally hundreds of races over the last 25+ years, I have sabotaged a few of them by trying to stay with guys far faster, compromising my finish and making those last few miles more painful and humiliating as runners who had no business passing me blow by me to their respective finishes. But I've learned that in both racing and in life, trying to run someone else's race is simply a recipe for disaster. When we get caught up trying to be someone we aren't or when we buy things we can't afford just to keep up with someone else, we bring unnecessary pain and suffering to our lives, compromising our own happiness and robbing our lives of the joy God had intended. Like the nasty, hilly ACT half marathon course, life can be tough enough without packing on the extra burden and weight of societal expectations. Let it go. Let them go. Don't let someone else dictate your race or your pace. You are in it to finish, so know that this life is not a sprint, but a marathon....appearances can be deceiving, and many of those folks you envy because you've somehow convinced yourself they are more successful than you are running someone else's race, at someone else's pace, and it's just a matter of time before they crash and burn. BELIEVE.

"So let us run with endurance the race GOD has set out before us" - Hebrews 12:1