I'll explain it by means of my first memory of it. Just over six years ago, I completed my first marathon, thanks in large part to the support of a running club in Portland, Maine with whom I trained while working at the Jesuit high school there for a semester in early 2006. At the end of that summer, I professed my first vows as a Jesuit; the sixth anniversary of that event is coming up in two weeks. Through the intervening months, I noticed the immense physical toll and mental effort that I devoted to my first marathon as both body and mind slowly restored themselves after being thoroughly spent during my passage along a lovely 26.2-mile course in the mountains of western Maine. On the morning that I took my first vows, during a routine morning run that I set aside for some of my prayer, I suddenly felt, unmistakably, the return of the same level of fitness that I carried to the starting line several months earlier. The verve of anticipating vows and devoting my life to God through the Society of Jesus and its life and mission, though significant, was not the only responsible factor– I could tell that my recovery was at an end, and a new training cycle could now begin.
 |
| Tower Hill Botanic Garden Boylston MA |
All this being said, could I run my next marathon tomorrow? Absolutely not. I haven't run more than eight miles at a stretch since the Providence Marathon back on May 6. But I can feel the gears shifting into a rhythm in which I'm ready, even eager, to begin training for my next race... hopefully a 10K, 10-miler, or half marathon in October of November. Knowing how this cycle works, based on six years of experience with summer recovery from a spring marathon, as that momentum gathers, it will start some complementary shifts in other areas of my life. I'll detail those soon, now that I know for sure that change is underway once again.
No comments:
Post a Comment