running lessons

I’ve been running lately and have been struck again with how much of a mental challenge it can be. I remember a lesson that came to me in my early twenties when rode my bicycle on the Oregon coast. One particular day I put in over a hundred miles, and if you’ve been up highway 101 you know that the roads are steep, circuitous and spectacular. It was the steepness that I was having troubles with. I soon realized that if I focused on the 15 feet in front of me, and just completed that distance, one section at a time, somehow, seeming inexplicably, I was able to move through mountain after mountain, till I finally reached home.

Well the same lesson is impressing itself upon me again as I hoof my way down the Raritan Canal path, it’s amazing how much it helps me accomplish my puny little running goals. A good lesson for me in other areas of my life too, like prayer.