Friday, June 5, 2009

The Value of Effort…

I’ve run many races and my results vary from distance to distance. Although I’m usually a mid to back-of-the-packer, I have occasionally finished near the top of my age division and even have brought home some hardware to gwak at when I get bored. My favorite distance is, by all accounts, the toughest and most costly to my or any participant’s self esteem - the Marathon. I’ve often asked myself, after finishing in a mindless shuffle complete with that hollow look in my eyes, why run this distance to sometimes barely finish at all much less behind the vast majority of the other runners? And am I just embarrassing myself in front of dozens or sometimes thousands of other competitors? I not only am representing myself but also my running group the “Marathon Maniacs.”

Why? Because I can. Because I am trying. Four plus years ago I got off the couch and decided to try. And that purposeful effort produced many incredibly positive returns. None of which is probably more important than the effects it’s had on my spirit. Yes, my body has been worked into better shape and I may have added years to my life. Yes, the discipline has opened up the state of my mind and produced a more effective business and personal life.

But most importantly, every time I finish a marathon I feel alive. Maybe not my body but my heart, soul and spirit. I see life in a different way when I cross that finish line - I am a marathon runner. I am an endurance athlete. I am someone who can feel pain and sometimes drift into a dream of laying down in the cool green grass just off of the race course to relieve my tired and aching muscles. But I keep moving. And I finish. Sometimes a little quicker than others. Of course I can’t take credit for that strength - I know that it’s God’s hand on me.

With that help I keep putting one foot in front of the other and I am different. That effort has made me different from those watching, those wondering why it’s taken me so long or why I do such insane things to my body in order to get a medal or paperweight commemorating my 5 to 6 hour struggle. That effort has value and that value isn’t shared by all so not everyone can understand where I am coming from or where it is that I’m running from or to.

Whether it’s a 5K, marathon or your first time to try to run a for one lone minute - the principal remains the same: our effort is valuable. We are different. We see life in a different way because we are living it.

One foot in front of the other. The effort is worth it. More than anyone will ever know.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

Teddy Roosevelt

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