In honor of Global Running Day I wanted to reflect on my personal experience with the sport. As with any endeavor, the first step is usually the hardest one you will take. Running isn’t kind to beginners but the more you do it, the easier it gets, and the more enjoyable it becomes. And so my story goes…
Some Are Called to Run
When I was a kid, I hated running, and had zero desire for it unless a ball was involved. I dreamed of playing Major League Baseball, so I was consumed with endlessly throwing baseballs into a tarp my dad set up for me.
Like most youth, I was first exposed to running in PE class, but it wasn’t fun. We would slog through our weekly miles. I enjoyed pushing myself, though, and had a little duel going with one of my classmates to see who could set the school record.
Once a year we would have a track meet, and I would usually be forced to run the mile because my peers knew I could run well. By the end of 8th grade, I’d set the school record at 5:32—a pace I thought was world-class at the time. (I am glad I didn’t know then that Sara, my bride-to-be, was beating me—she was already cranking out 5:20 miles in her 8th-grade year. I am pretty sure she forced many boys into early running retirement by repeatedly crushing their fastest times.)
It wasn’t until then, in 8th grade, that I had any real desire to run. I remember looking out over a sparkling blue lake in Big Bear, California, and feeling an urge, which I believe came from God, to run the 15-mile circuit around the lake.
I went home later that day and told my father what I wanted to do. Instead of shooting down what was clearly a dumb idea for a first-time runner, my dad said he wanted to come with me. He was a marathon runner so a 15-mile stint wasn’t a big deal for him.
For me, though, it turned into a very long, slow, pain-filled run around the lake with frequent stops to refuel, and to soak my beaten legs in the frigid lake water. Any outsider observing me then would have thought: “This kid is really going to hate running now.” But God was speaking to me in that moment, and I knew that He had given me a gift to run with the best runners in the world. I also felt then that He had given me this gift so I could help others.
I knew what running with the best runners in the world meant—the Olympics—but it took me 10 years to figure out how running could be used to help others. In that moment I went from being a kid who hated running, to one who was obsessed with it. It was then that I started training to be one of the world’s best.
I am so grateful I had that experience as a kid, to discover my purpose in life and my passion for running. Thereafter, I always knew what I was striving for, so when tough times came (like when I dropped out of Stanford for a quarter because I was so depressed that my running wasn’t going well), I only had to ask myself one question: Have I accomplished my purpose of running with the best in the world and helping others? I knew if I hadn’t reached that goal, then I had to keep going for it, and had to use every discouragement as fuel to fulfill my mission.
Some Are Born to Run
The worst thing any beginning runner can do is start comparing himself or herself to someone else. We all have our own unique beginnings, and improve at different rates. After gravitating toward running from playing soccer, Sara saw rapid improvements in her running right away. She became the first high-school girl to win four State XC Championships. Meanwhile, I didn’t win my first State Championship until my junior year.
What you need to strive for is gradual improvement over time. Each year you should be improving in some way until you have reached the limits of your own unique running potential. In my opinion, you really don’t know how good at running you can become unless you have been training consistently for 10 years.
So what happens when you reach your running potential? Do you stop running? Do you resign yourself to getting slower? Certainly not! Even though I reached my initial goal of running with the best in the world, and found the limits of my potential, I will continue to pursue the second part of my purpose: to help others through running.
Running Can Change Lives
After the 2008 Olympics, Sara and I partnered with Team World Vision for the Chicago Marathon and helped raise enough money to bring clean water to 90,000 people in Zambia. We were lucky enough to go to Zambia, and visit the communities after they received the clean water—which was life changing. I’ll never forget when a villager stood next to me at the ribbon-cutting ceremony of one of the bore holes we helped provide. He told me that the clean water we brought to his community would increase their life expectancy by 10 years. How crazy is that? We’d simply joined a bunch of runners to fundraise, and with one race we were literally adding years to lives.
My point is: Maybe your purpose for running will change. Maybe it will no longer be about maximizing your own potential.
For me, helping others has been more fulfilling than setting records, competing in the Olympics, and winning races. Today, I find incredible satisfaction in coaching a local middle school track team, and helping Sara prepare for her races. In honor of Global Running Day, let’s find a way to make running truly fulfilling, no matter how fast or slow your pace may be—by helping others along the way.
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