The 26.2: No Excuses

So every once in a while, I have milestone moments. 

You know the ones that are so epic, so rare that they end up defining a whole season of life. Changing my outlook. Moments that leave me saying “did that really just happen?” Forks in the road that lead to me to new lands. 

Definitely childbirth is on that list. The day I said I do and became a wife to the most wonderful man on the planet. Yep, that was a life changer. Surrendering my life to Jesus. Completely revolutionary. 

And then there is The 26.2. 

It pales in comparison, of course, to the list I’ve just rattled off. 

But, just barely. 

It was November of 2011. My running girls were tossing around the marathon idea and I have to say it was a bit like a polite game of hot potato meets throwing down the gauntlet, daring the brave ones to step up and show us what you’re made of. 

Running a marathon was on my bucket list for sure, but it was definitely written in pencil. It was a take it or leave it item that I’m not so sure I was all that serious about. 

But here it was. Starring me in the face. Daring me. And I felt something in my heart sing It’s now or never. The timing was right. 

So I registered. 

I remember the moment I pressed enter on the registration page felt a little bit like the moment I knew I was pregnant for the first time. Elated. Challenged. Scared. A little sickish, and a whole lotta what did I just get myself into? 

Will I have what it takes? Can I handle this pressure? My knees?? What about my knees? 

With all the self doubt running amuck and excuses choking every breath, I had a decision to make. Right then and there I had to name the year. 2012 became my year of “No Excuses.” 

It had to be. 

I knew that to see this commitment through to the finish line I was going to have to be vigilant. Dedicated. The captain of a tight ship. A little less like my normal self and a whole lot more like the person I hope to become. 

But to be honest, that’s about all I knew. Little did I know how that initial commitment would soon turn into a way of life, that “No excuses” would be the very theme that woke me up at the ungodly hour of 6am to run 12 miles in the pouring rain. No excuses would teach me to analyze I every piece of food, every drink, based on it’s ability to fuel my body to help it achieve the unthinkable task I was asking it to do.  IT band issues, ice baths, sore muscles, mental defeat, blisters, losing toenails, 18 miles in snow flurries. Chaffing. And did I mention ICE BATHS?! 

No excuses. 

Run.

Because the experience was such a personal life changer for me, I’m certain this is the first of many posts about The 26.2. But with every epic tale, I have to start at the beginning. And the beginning for me was that day I registered and decided in my heart “No Excuses”. 

Did I know completely what this would require of me? No. How could I? But much like marriage and parenting and every amazingly awesome but wickedly hard journey God calls us to, The 26.2 was much more than just a registration. And it was much more than a race. Oh no, my friends. It became a cocoon of transformation that God would use to change me. It became a living, breathing illustration for me of that amazing race that we are running called life. 

I love how the Bible written so long ago by men who I have so little in common with by all other accounts, liken the Christian life to being in a race. While I had understood it in theory, I feel as if The 26.2 gave me a tangible story of my own to cling to and understand. Words like endurance and perseverance suddenly began to leap off the page at me and say “Hey! remember me? We met at mile 22.”  

It makes so much more sense to me now.  At registration, very little is required of you. But, by golly, a whole lot is expected of you by the end of that race. 

I once heard it said that salvation is both an act and a process. The moment I believe on the Lord Jesus and placed my trust in Him alone to save me, I was saved completely. I was saved from myself, from sin, from Hell. 

But I wasn’t just saved from something. I was saved to Someone—Jesus, and to a life of daily transformation into His image.  

So that day I signed up was a huge first step. But then the real work starts. The training.  Really, the decision to race means very little if I now don’t act on that decision everyday to prepare to finish the race. If I don’t equip myself, ready my muscles, condition my heart and prepare my mind to endure, will I finish well? I want to finish my life having worked my faith out hard, backing up that first commitment to Christ with a lifetime of training (Phil 2:12). 

Even when it’s hard and I don’t feel like it. It’s time for the process of training to take over and change me. Taking me to places I never thought I could go. Learning to exert what I want over what my body wants. Exercising to a point that I stretch, learn, grow and change. Teaching myself to pay attention and not just do what I feel, but rather do what is best and what will help me achieve my goal. Pushing through the sore places and irritations. Always keeping the end in mind. What is ahead is worth it. Stay strong. Don’t give up. 

No Excuses.

Run.

There would be no race without the registration. But equally so, there would be no finish line without the training. 

Both are required. Both are necessary. 

Every great work in us and through us has a starting place. A birthplace. A launchpad. We have to sign up. We have to have the courage to say yes. 

Then we must honor that starting place by putting feet to our faith, and just get moving, trusting that God has the plan and the process to get us to the finish line. 

Trust the training. God knows what He is doing. And let me tell you, there is nothing more glorious than rounding the corner to see that finish line! 

No Excuses!

“Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans, cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running –and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we are in. Study how he did it. Because He never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilaration finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: cross, shame, whatever. And now He is there, in the place of honor, right alongside God.” Hebrews 12:1-2 The Message Bible