{"id":1713,"date":"2013-12-12T17:00:22","date_gmt":"2013-12-12T23:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?p=1713"},"modified":"2013-12-11T19:13:35","modified_gmt":"2013-12-12T01:13:35","slug":"lessons-from-the-marathon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2013\/12\/lessons-from-the-marathon.html","title":{"rendered":"Lessons From the Marathon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
the start of the 2003 Dallas White Rock Marathon<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

This Saturday marks ten years since I ran my second and final marathon.\u00a0 Though injuries and weight gain forced me to stop running long ago, my brief running \u201ccareer\u201d remains one of my most meaningful personal achievements.<\/p>\n

Last year I told my running story in the context of a wider discussion on fat and health.\u00a0 Go read it if you\u2019re interested<\/a> \u2013 here\u2019s an excerpt.<\/p>\n

Growing up I always felt like I was inferior because I wasn\u2019t an athlete. Running changed all that. I still wasn\u2019t very fast, but with amateur distance running you don\u2019t have to be fast. You just have to keep going. I gradually stretched out from a mile to two to three. When I ran four miles for the first time in my life at the age of 36 I knew I was on to something. I went from exercising<\/em> to training<\/em>. I kept training logs. I bought running clothes. I started signing up for races. I was doing something \u201cnormal\u201d people couldn\u2019t (or wouldn\u2019t) do. I was finally an athlete.<\/p>\n

In 1999 I ran 20 to 40 miles per week. That November I ran the Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon in 3 hours and 58 minutes. I was thrilled, and I had dreams of qualifying for the Boston Marathon.<\/p>\n

Two months later I had my first serious running injury \u2013 plantar fasciitis.<\/p>\n

Over the next five years I kept running while I tried various combinations of rest, stretching, orthotics, medication and ice treatments. My mileage went down and my weight went up. I ran the Dallas White Rock Marathon in December 2003 in 4:20.<\/p>\n

By then more than my right foot was hurting. I was constantly tired and I was tired of training. I kept cutting back and cutting back and my weight was creeping up. The last entry in my running log was a 7 mile run on September 19, 2004. I kept meaning to pick it up again, but I never did.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ten years feels like a significant anniversary.\u00a0 It also feels like it\u2019s been long enough to make some useful observations on what I learned from the whole process.<\/p>\n

The human body is a magical thing<\/strong>.\u00a0 The magical tradition has its stories of wonder working mystics, stories that even those of us who practice diligently view with a skeptical eye.\u00a0 But every year, hundreds of thousands of ordinary people run a distance (26.2 miles) most of us find impossible.\u00a0 It\u2019s not for nothing that the inspiration for the modern marathon \u2013 the story of Pheidippides running from Marathon to Athens to report that the invading Persians had been defeated \u2013 ended with the runner dropping dead.<\/p>\n

In a recent post I gave the classic definition of magic<\/a>: \u201cthe Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will.\u201d\u00a0 Training for a marathon is a magical working.\u00a0 It makes you wonder what else we think is impossible is merely improbable, awaiting only the proper application of science, art, and will to manifest it in this world.<\/p>\n

The human body has limits<\/strong>.\u00a0 Any system eventually runs up against its limits<\/a>.\u00a0 The marathon is infamous for \u201cthe wall\u201d \u2013 the point at which the body exhausts its supply of glycogen and no longer has the energy to keep running at the previous pace.\u00a0 That\u2019s generally around 20 miles.\u00a0 I breezed by 20 miles in both my marathons, then hit the wall at 22 and had to slow drastically.<\/p>\n

There are individual limits and there are cumulative limits.\u00a0 I ran into a limit on training \u2013 if I ran enough to complete a marathon, I got injured.\u00a0 That\u2019s the knife edge elite athletes must walk.\u00a0 Train just a bit too hard and you get injured.\u00a0 Train just a bit too light and you get beat.<\/p>\n

Your limits are usually far beyond what you think they are, but when you reach them, they\u2019re real.<\/p>\n

The value of sustained, consistent practice cannot be overstated<\/strong>.\u00a0 There are \u201ccouch to 5K\u201d programs all over the country that can take a sedentary but otherwise healthy person from doing nothing to running 3.1 miles in a few months.\u00a0 There are \u201c5K to marathon\u201d programs that will take a novice runner to a marathon finisher in several more.\u00a0 These program are built on a commitment to run 3 or 4 days a week, every week.\u00a0 All the rest \u2013 diet and stretching recommendations, group runs, charity fundraising, goal races \u2013 are tricks to keep the aspiring runner running regularly.\u00a0 You can skip a run here and there, but skip a week and you\u2019ll find yourself more than a week behind schedule.<\/p>\n

Try to move beyond simply finishing to finishing in a certain time and more training is required.\u00a0 You may need years of gradually increasing mileage to reach your ultimate goals.<\/p>\n

How long do you think a virtuoso musician has practiced?\u00a0 A martial arts master?\u00a0 A great ritual leader?<\/p>\n

How long do you think those wonder working mystics\u00a0 have practiced?<\/p>\n

Becoming competent at anything is a matter of a little regular practice.\u00a0 Being as good as you can be?\u00a0 That takes much longer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Don\u2019t quit<\/strong>.\u00a0 We\u2019ve all heard \u201cthe first step is the hardest.\u201d\u00a0 If you\u2019re dealing with fear, sometimes that\u2019s true.\u00a0 Most times, though, the first day\u2019s running is easy.\u00a0 What\u2019s hard is getting out there on the second day when you\u2019re stiff and sore and still a little tired from yesterday.\u00a0 What\u2019s hard is going out there day after day, week after week, in heat and cold, rain and snow, and doing what you said you wanted to do.\u00a0 I wanted the experience of running a marathon, so I kept it up.<\/p>\n

Starting a Pagan practice is easy.\u00a0 What\u2019s hard is sitting in meditation night after night.\u00a0 What\u2019s hard is making regular offerings and devotions.\u00a0 What\u2019s hard is engaging in reflection and contemplation and study and all the things that fall under the category of spiritual practice.\u00a0 But if you want to be a competent Druid or Witch or other Pagan practitioner, keep it up.<\/p>\n

Know when to quit<\/strong>.\u00a0 Some things \u2013 and some people \u2013 are part of your life forever.\u00a0 Other things and other people come in and even though they\u2019re meaningful and helpful they aren\u2019t meant to last.\u00a0 Clinging to things past their time is rarely helpful.<\/p>\n

Running let me be an athlete for a few years \u2013 I can\u2019t tell you how important that was for me.\u00a0 But if I was still trying to be an athlete I wouldn\u2019t have the time and energy to be the Druid I\u2019m called to be\u2026 not to mention the fact that my body was telling me it\u2019s not cut out for regular distance running.<\/p>\n

I still walk regularly.\u00a0 It\u2019s good exercise, it\u2019s low impact, and I enjoy it.\u00a0 It\u2019s part of my regular spiritual practice.\u00a0 But I\u2019m not an athlete any more.<\/p>\n

There is value in doing something for yourself<\/strong>.\u00a0 Distance running is perhaps the most solitary of sports.\u00a0 While it\u2019s easy to start, getting better requires a significant commitment in training time, recovery time, diet, and the constant demand of the schedule.\u00a0 These commitments can have an impact on friends and family who don\u2019t share your passion.\u00a0 And then there are the killjoys who claim that runners are narcissists who waste time on themselves.<\/p>\n

Anything can be overdone.\u00a0 But proper self-care is a necessity if your life is to be as effective and as meaningful as it can be.\u00a0\u00a0 We need the basic necessities of life.\u00a0 We also need art, music, good food, and love.\u00a0 All of us need exercise \u2013 some of us need training and competition.<\/p>\n

Proper self-care equips us and energizes us for service to our gods, our communities, and our world.<\/p>\n

Sometimes I wonder if things would have turned out differently if I had never gone past a half marathon.\u00a0 Could I have avoided injury and kept running?\u00a0 Or would I have stopped even sooner without the carrot of the marathon constantly in front of me?\u00a0 I suppose I\u2019ll never know.<\/p>\n

But I know this:\u00a0 running gave me some great experiences and taught me some valuable lessons.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The myth that inspired the modern marathon ended with the runner dropping dead. Yet every year, hundreds of thousands of ordinary people complete this supposedly impossible feat. It makes you wonder what else we think is impossible is merely improbable, awaiting only the proper application of science, art, and will to manifest it in this world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":1714,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[38,234,4,5,233,10],"class_list":["post-1713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-practice","tag-limits","tag-marathons","tag-pagan","tag-paganism","tag-running","tag-spiritual-practice"],"yoast_head":"\nLessons From the Marathon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The myth that inspired the modern marathon ended with the runner dropping dead. Yet every year, hundreds of thousands of ordinary people complete this supposedly impossible feat. It makes you wonder what else we think is impossible is merely improbable, awaiting only the proper application of science, art, and will to manifest it in this world.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lessons From the Marathon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The myth that inspired the modern marathon ended with the runner dropping dead. Yet every year, hundreds of thousands of ordinary people complete this supposedly impossible feat. It makes you wonder what else we think is impossible is merely improbable, awaiting only the proper application of science, art, and will to manifest it in this world.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2013\/12\/lessons-from-the-marathon.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-12-12T23:00:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-12-12T01:13:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2013\/12\/2003-DWR-Marathon-start.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2013\/12\/lessons-from-the-marathon.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2013\/12\/lessons-from-the-marathon.html\",\"name\":\"Lessons From the Marathon\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-12-12T23:00:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-12-12T01:13:35+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\"},\"description\":\"The myth that inspired the modern marathon ended with the runner dropping dead. Yet every year, hundreds of thousands of ordinary people complete this supposedly impossible feat. It makes you wonder what else we think is impossible is merely improbable, awaiting only the proper application of science, art, and will to manifest it in this world.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2013\/12\/lessons-from-the-marathon.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2013\/12\/lessons-from-the-marathon.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2013\/12\/lessons-from-the-marathon.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Lessons From the Marathon\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"description\":\"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Beckett\"},\"description\":\"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. Wandering through them gave me a sense of connection to Nature and to a certain Forest God. I\u2019m a Druid graduate of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, the Coordinating Officer of the Denton Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans and a former Vice President of CUUPS Continental. I\u2019ve been writing, speaking, teaching, and leading public rituals for the past eleven years. I live in the Dallas \u2013 Fort Worth area and I earn my keep as an engineer.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/author\/johnbeckett\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Lessons From the Marathon","description":"The myth that inspired the modern marathon ended with the runner dropping dead. Yet every year, hundreds of thousands of ordinary people complete this supposedly impossible feat. It makes you wonder what else we think is impossible is merely improbable, awaiting only the proper application of science, art, and will to manifest it in this world.","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Lessons From the Marathon","og_description":"The myth that inspired the modern marathon ended with the runner dropping dead. Yet every year, hundreds of thousands of ordinary people complete this supposedly impossible feat. It makes you wonder what else we think is impossible is merely improbable, awaiting only the proper application of science, art, and will to manifest it in this world.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2013\/12\/lessons-from-the-marathon.html","og_site_name":"John Beckett","article_published_time":"2013-12-12T23:00:22+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-12-12T01:13:35+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":576,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2013\/12\/2003-DWR-Marathon-start.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"John Beckett","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"John Beckett","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2013\/12\/lessons-from-the-marathon.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2013\/12\/lessons-from-the-marathon.html","name":"Lessons From the Marathon","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-12-12T23:00:22+00:00","dateModified":"2013-12-12T01:13:35+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad"},"description":"The myth that inspired the modern marathon ended with the runner dropping dead. Yet every year, hundreds of thousands of ordinary people complete this supposedly impossible feat. It makes you wonder what else we think is impossible is merely improbable, awaiting only the proper application of science, art, and will to manifest it in this world.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2013\/12\/lessons-from-the-marathon.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2013\/12\/lessons-from-the-marathon.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2013\/12\/lessons-from-the-marathon.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Lessons From the Marathon"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/","name":"John Beckett","description":"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad","name":"John Beckett","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"John Beckett"},"description":"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. Wandering through them gave me a sense of connection to Nature and to a certain Forest God. I\u2019m a Druid graduate of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, the Coordinating Officer of the Denton Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans and a former Vice President of CUUPS Continental. I\u2019ve been writing, speaking, teaching, and leading public rituals for the past eleven years. I live in the Dallas \u2013 Fort Worth area and I earn my keep as an engineer.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/author\/johnbeckett"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}