The Power of Three
This past Saturday marks a significant day in the beginnings of my endurance sports career as I ran 18 miles with two of my friends. The sad truth is that I had not been running for three weeks due to hunting trips, discouragement and a dose of laziness. My friends gently coerced me by including me on all emails pertaining to the weekend “long” run and with hasty zeal I replied with a promise that I would meet them to run on Saturday morning.
I was very apprehensive about the prospect of running 20 miles (which is the amount we were scheduled to run) but decided that I needed to give it a shot and make it as far as I could. We met at the dog park as usual and started off at a nice steady pace. Feeling good about 20 minutes into the run I ignorantly stated, “At this pace, I could run forever!” The other guys smiled, agreed and waited about an hour until they found out I was full of blue mud.
I felt great up until the end of the first lap and then my knees and joints started to remind me that I had been sitting down for three weeks and hadn’t used them. We stopped briefly a couple of times to grab a quick drink at the water fountains as we knew staying hydrated would be highly important in the later stages of the run. One of the guys, Casey (Triathlete Extraordinare) acts as a camel as he wears a hydration belt which carries to bottles of water as well as a pouch for Energy Gels. We freely grab from his waist whenever we feel like a drink, it’s cute.
Anyway, the pain set in around mile 11 and grew as we rounded the lake for a second time. I finally bowed out and left the two consistent warriors to finish the beast. I walked the rest of the way but felt really good about making as far as I did. It is certain that I would never have been able to do it without John and Casey encouraging me, waking up just to be there and pushing me to my limit. It’s a great picture in life and how we all need people around us to encourage us and to call us to do greater things. Without these kind of people we become lazy, selfish and independent and it becomes impossible to find joy and satisfaction in this state.
So thank you guys for pushing me and waking me from my slumber. You’re champions!
