Race Day

My younger daughter, Melissa, is running the Fifth Third River Bank 25K this morning. She has trained for months for this race and today is her day. Despite this being May, a cold front moved in and dropped the temperature into the upper 30's, and the wind chill has the air temperature at freezing. The weather and a sore throat kept me home today, so I won't be there to watch her cross the finish line (I'm going to watch the live video feed so I can hopefully see her finish), but the weather didn't deter her or the thousands of other participants in this race. It's likely to be a miserable race due to the weather, but these runners, including my daughter, have their eyes on a goal.

I'm not a runner (I have a bad knee), but I've watched bits and pieces of a few marathons over the years. As I think back to the marathons, one thing I remember is that most of the runners aren't smiling while they're running. Some of them look like they're concentrating, and others are actually grimacing. The exhilaration of taking off at the starting line eventually fades and the marathoner is faced with the task of just putting one foot in front of the other. At some point along the way, it's not particularly fun any more. But running a marathon isn't necessarily about having fun along the way (although some runners really do enjoy the journey). Running in a marathon is about finishing it and having the satisfaction of knowing that the runner accomplished something difficult. There might not be a lot of smiling going on during the marathon, but there are lots of smiles and lots of celebrations at the finish line.

Sometimes we have unrealistic expectations about the weight loss marathon we're on and we expect it to be fun and exciting the entire time. That might be true if it was a 50 yard dash, but it's not a dash - this is the marathon of our lives. The reality is that we will alternate between exhilaration and exhaustion, between feeling like this is the best thing we've ever done to hating the thought of doing this one more day. In the end, we will experience a full spectrum of emotions on this journey, but as long as we keep putting one foot in front of another, we will cross the finish line. And when we cross the finish line and reach goal, there will be smiles and lots of celebration.

And after the celebration we'll begin the next marathon - maintenance :-).

So, are your running shoes laced up? It's another marathon day - are you committed to staying the course? The choice to run today is yours - choose wisely :-)