Marathon Madness. Part one...Why I chose the Marathon...

 

"We are different, in essence, from other men. If you want to win something, run 100 meters. If you want to experience something, run a marathon." Emil Zatopek, winner of four Olympic gold medals

As many of you know, I am training for a marathon. This will be my 3rd marathon. 

• Chicago Marathon-10-10-10. 3:40:02 Ran for for Leukemia Lymphoma and qualified for Boston.
• Boston Marathon 4-18-2011. 3:39:44

The marathon is NOT my favorite race. I like the Half Marathon. 

The Marathon makes you feel like a Stallion. Powerful, strong and tough! It is the Race of all races, the Grandfather of distance. The "arrival" as a runner. This is ALL ONLY my perception!! And I am not working with a full deck..Just saying. There is no where this is written as truth.

The Marathon has been around since 490 BC. The Modern Athens Marathon commemorates the run of the soldier "Pheidippides" from a battlefield town of Marathon, Greece, to Athens where upon arrival of his message he was delivering collapsed and DIED!
The Message simply said "NIKI" which means VICTORY...."NIKI" is also know to many as NIKE!!

The apostle Paul gives many illustrations about "Running the Race" He talks about it often because the people in Greece could relate to the familiar games.

•  "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it" (1 Corinthians 9:24, ESV).
•  "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."(Hebrews 12:1-2)

MARATHON HUMOR

The Marathon is ALWAYS 26.2 mile. I loved when I got done running or am training and someone always asks:
"So Nita, how far is a marathon?"  or "So, did you Win?"
Or one of my favorites "Is the Chicago Marathon as long as the Boston Marathon?"
I ACTUALLY even had someone ask "So how far is a Half?!
Many of you training for a marathon have heard these, ALL of these and can say "Yup, I have even heard these a few times!"

WHY RUN THE MADNESS of THE MARATHON:

 Frank Shorter, 1972 Olympic marathon gold medalist:

 "You have to forget your last marathon before you try another. Your mind can't know what's coming."

I ask myself this many times. I Love pushing my body to its limits. I love running. I love the warmth of the sunshine against my bare skin in the summer, the sound of my feet hitting the pavement. I love the breeze refreshing me, the birds soaring through the sky, and the serenity of quietness. I love the peace I absorb in the elements of earth. The greenery, the smell of lilacs, pine trees, horses in the pasture...I have a sense of smallness, humility, and powerlessness in Gods Beauty. I Love FEELING GOD all around me. A Oneness. I feel his presence as I run blocking out the chaos of the Children, the hurts of yesterday and today, the disappointments, disputes, and the overall DRAMA of LIFE and the people in it.

Bill Rodgers, winner of 4 Boston and four NYC marathons. "The marathon can humble you."

I push myself to the limits of the marathon for the same reason only more emotional. I do it because I believe God uses me in my weakness. "When I am weak He is Strong." I desperately seek his strength, his stamina, His endurance in my running...And that is where it collides with my life also. I break myself soo down that only GOD himself can carry me. Running to the level of pain and endurance of a marathon reminds me to humbly SEEK God. In order for me to ask him for Anything I have to come with a clean heart...It is here...HE searches me, It is HERE I purge, I release, I repent and Ask HIM to do a work in me.
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Soo Here is YOUR CHANCE:
ARE YOUR THINKING ABOUT RUNNING A MARATHON?
GIVE ME YOUR QUESTIONS...
For those WHO HAVE RAN AND DO RUN THE Marathon...Why DO YOU RUN it???
What Compels YOU to put your Body their such Stress and discipline???

Tomorrow I will answer some questions and give some Tips and Ideas for those considering Tackling the Madness of the Marathon!

"I've learned that finishing a marathon isn't just an athletic achievement. It's a state of mind; a state of mind that says anything is possible." John Hanc

Anita