It has been awhile, but there may be a sudden spurt of blog posts about various things. Chances are they won’t be quite so long as the previous ones…but I’ve said that in my head every time too.
Before I even arrived in St. John…nay, before I knew I would be coming to St. John, I learned something about the island. Every year, this huge event, second only to Carnival occurs. It’s a race across the entire island: more than eight brutal miles of insanely long and steep hills. At some points, one wonders if it would be more efficient to run on all fours, they are just that steep. For an elevation chart, check this out. And yes, you saw correctly: it climbs to the height of the Empire State Building. Its actually called 8 Tuff Miles. Needless to say, I’m pretty pumped for this race.
I haven’t seriously raced since my last marathon back in 2009, and being in Indiana, the terrain and elevation was prettttttty different (seriously! we might as well be on treadmills!). Its been a good occasion to get back into running on a regular basis, with a regiment, goals, and actual motivation.
The race is in two weeks, and with one week being a taper week, I’m definitely scheduling my last training opportunities. To tweak the old adage, if I “plan to win, I have to know when to plan”…”winning” being a liberal term synonymous with “reaching my goal of a sub-60 minute finish.” I ran a mean hill workout today, tomorrow’s a break day where I’ll slackline and crank a few sets of burpees, Monday I’ll run the course for the third time (best time so far? 62:21.), then I’ll schedule intersperse another hill workout and a tempo run with a couple of light 20-30 minute runs (I’m trying to keep the overall mileage low because this doggone island does WORK on your knees – killer uphills equals steep downhills). And obviously, I’ve managed to revolve my eating habits, my slacklining, my climbing training, and my core/handstand/crossfit-esque workouts around the central issue of running this race. (After the race, I’ll probably eat whatever I want and slackline every day instead of run. Just kidding. Kind of.)
But all of this orientation to one purpose, one event even, got me thinking. Reflecting. Analyzing the other facets of my being…namely my spirituality and what that looks like. Because right now, I don’t want my spiritual life to look like that. In the past, that’s what I strove for and yearned to accomplish: a motivated, regimented, disciplined, goal-oriented life full of ancient practices, intentional community, and borne along by a steady buffet of Bible, biography, theology, and reference works. Surely the same principles would translate over!
The much-abbreviated short of it is, I really want to know what it means to “strive to enter the rest of God.” Self-emptying and Spirit-filling. Because grace is always received. Mercy is always granted. Power comes from “on high.” “Trust in Him, and He will act.” Good. Because frankly, I’m tired. I’ve been trying for a while, and really, I have not changed. My behaviors have been amended at certain times for a duration, but I have always reverted. Every. Single. Time. I am still only me.
Here’s to a sub-60 8 Tuff Miles.
Here’s to Romans 8 being accomplished in my life.
“The real voyage of discovery and change does not consist in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”
- Marcel Proust
(This one is dedicated to Colonel Bryan, Greg Mu, Dr. Dezago, Habakkuk for being the only non-psalmist to use ‘selah,’ and Augustus Gloop.)
