Running behind Danny

Just a couple quick thoughts today.

First, today was my first “C” run.  On my training schedule, “A” runs require staying in the heart range of 65-70% of maximum, “B” runs (the long Saturday runs) allow a range of 60-75% of maximum, and “C” runs are 75-80% of maximum heart rate.  So today was the first time I was really allowed to run.  How wonderful it felt!  It’s been weeks since I have been allowed to run up to 80%.  Okay, it’s true: I do cheat sometimes during my cool-down period.  After all, I end my runs by going up a big hill which leads to my neighborhood -- so it’s hard to keep my heart rate down without going backwards.  But today I was able to run a full 5 kilometers.  Well, 5k including warm-up and cool-down.  Anyway, I got to run, and I was very happy.  Next week, I get my first “D” run, which is seven-minute intervals up to 85% max heart rate. 

Today was a rainy morning.   It won’t be long before early morning rain might change the course of my day.  But for now, it was quite welcome.

What occurred to me today was how our church’s pulpit minister, Danny, is at least partly responsible for my decision to run a marathon & write this blog.  Danny decided to do a year of nine different forty-day fasts.  For example, he started with a 40-day food fast, just finished 40 days without speaking, and just began a 40-day fast from walking (getting around in a wheelchair, I imagine).  And he is blogging the experience on this very site: http://yearoffasting.blogspot.com.

It’s pretty clear how his influence would have led me to write this blog.  He’s the only active (unpaid) blogger that I know.  But more so, I think, has been the influence of his decision to undertake these austerities.  It seems to me that a number of us at Clemson Church of Christ are setting bigger personal goals for ourselves.  I have to think that some of this comes from his impact.  My buddy Mike from church has decided to run the Columbia SC marathon as well; I would say “with me,” but he’s ten years younger than me, has been in training longer than me now, and is generally more athletic than I am.  So the only sense in which I’ll be running with him is that he & I are both running the same race and, perhaps, I may be able to draw some strength from the spiritual kinship of that.  But I’m sure he’ll be done an hour and a half before I will.

Anyway, I think more of us in the congregation are asking more of ourselves, and I credit Danny with his leadership role.  It’s been great the many ways we have been able to participate in his fasts: from reading his blog, to hosting him for a weekend when he was fasting from sight, to the vicarious participation that we’ve been afforded seeing his struggles.  It is good to move, to compel oneself, to go beyond one’s comfort zone.  It’s great to have comfort, but most of the rewards in life come from pushing.

From the labor that brings forth a baby to the struggles of running a marathon, it is good to push.