And they shall run and not be weary....

This article at Meridian got me thinking: http://www.meridianmagazine.com/candoyouth/081231run.html


I have seen people try and do to much, too fast, and then fall into depression when they cannot do everything. Particularly, I have seen new converts get depressed when they try and do everything but still feel they fall short as if perfection can be won in a day, week, year, or even lifetime.

As I read the article I was reminded of the race I ran back in high school track. It was the two mile which consisted of 8 laps around the track. The 2 mile was ran right before the mile relay, the last event of the track meet. Most of my fellow track team members were already on the bus when the race started. No one wanted to watch people endure 8 laps of agony.

Over the course of 8 laps it is easy to lose track of how far you have come. Your mind, starved for oxygen from the exertion, starts to play tricks on you. You cannot remember if you are on lap 6 or lap 8. Your mind wanders as lap after lap goes by until the last 1 1/2 lap or so when when things start to get intense. In order to assist the runners there is a running tally of what lap they are on kept by the starting line that you can look at as you pass.

Sometimes even with the running count it can still get confusing. Runners will get spread out all over the track. Some runners will get lapped by faster runners. Others will pass runners and then get passed later by the same runners they passed earlier. With an oxygen starved body and brain, confusion can occasionally set in. The physical pain you feel also contributes to poor decision making as every muscle in your body screams for rest.

On one particular day we were running at Redwood High school, home of the Rangers. Redwood had a blue track. We really liked the blue track because in our minds it was easier to look at than our old black track. We convinced ourselves that the blue track would be less hot and give us an advantage. It would be like running on cool water. In reality there probably was no difference. About 20 or so guys lined up for the start that day and the race began.

The race progressed like any other up until lap 6 when one of the runners began running faster and faster. It was clear to me and I'm sure to many of the other runners that this guy had lost track of what lap he was on. He began passing runners who were trying hard to maintain their pace.

A funny thing happens when your brain is oxygen starved. You begin to question if it isn't you who are off in the lap count. Soon the feeling spread and everyone began to pick up the pace as a small panic began. Suddenly, most of the runners were going much faster. Still not as fast as the first guy but the pace had definitely quickened as if each runner was worried that maybe that one guy was right.

Fortunately, the rest of us didn't completely give into the mania and didn't blow out everything in our energy reserves. As the young man crossed the line on his seventh lap he was informed that he had one more lap to go to finish the race. Totally spent, he could go no further and stumbled off to the side of the finish line and collapsed on the grass. The other runners passed by and finished the final lap. He will forever remember how he came just short of finishing that race because he ran faster than he was able.

Mosiah 4:27

And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order.