Pressing Onward

Six weeks from today I should be writing to reflect on the immediate experience of finishing the Twin Cities Marathon. Twelve weeks of training in the bank and six more to go. I am beginning to think that I may actually make it. Saturday I slogged through 18 miles (the last 3.5 being tough) and at the end I thought, "Yes, I could go another 8 if I had to." Now I have a couple of lighter long runs (14 and 15) before the dreaded 20-miler. I suppose the idea is if you can make 20 in training, then you can make 26.2 on race day.

What is it about having others around to encourage and cheer us on? From what I have been told, it makes a huge difference on marathon day. My sister-in-law said that it can make the difference between finishing well and surviving. (BTW, props to Terry for finishing the 60-mile Breast Cancer 3-Day walk. Way to go!) I notice the difference in training runs. for these runs it is just me and the road. No one cheering or shouting "Good job!" or "Almost there!" While the solitude is one the main reasons that I love running, sometimes some encouragement can help me to persevere. At the few races that I've been in this summer, it has been helpful to hear the encouragement from people, even though I don't know them and they don't know me.

It is easy to encourage other runners. It just takes noticing and a little bit of voice. Why is it more difficult to encourage people in the midst of everyday life? And don't we need every bit as much encouragement in the day to day? A man from the early church was so closely identified with his attitude of encouraging others that they changed his name to Barnabas--Son of Encouragement. What a great moniker. I wonder what kind of difference I could make for someone today just by speaking a word of encouragement--Good job! You're almost finished! Hang in there! I'll give it a shot this week and see what difference it makes.