One more marathon

I took part in the 2022 edition of the Standard Chartered Nairobi Marathon. Despite a somewhat truncated training period and some small nagging injuries, I still managed to lower my PR by a few minutes (yay!) from my last race in 2019. This was my second marathon race (I've covered the distance four times, two of these as birthday runs).

I wrote some years back about how I correlate running with vocation, faith and life. The key lessons from this year?

Run your race at your pace

We had elites who finished in just over 2 hours, while others did the distance in over 4 hrs. The starting gun fired a few seconds after 6:45 am. Two hours and ten minutes later, the men's winner had crossed the finishing line, as I was slogging uphill at about 25km.  Everyone has unique abilities (or intelligences according to Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner). Starting too hard as you try keep up with a faster athlete (let alone the elites) could mean limping to a finish after 42km, or not finishing at all. Life is a marathon not a sprint. Some times we run uphill, taking one painful step after another until the very top. Other times, one could be cruising downhill.

Discipline: Always be prepared (Scouts' Motto)

Unless your body is special, one must put in the hard work of training; lots of early morning runs, building up endurance over several weeks, managing injuries. There is also the discipline required during the taper period where you need to let your body recover over 2-4 weeks before the race. In work, life and faith, one must put in the work, and keep focused on the big objective. Most of the work is done away from the limelight and is tiring.

Team wins

It's really hard to push through the training and the race without people around that push you to keep going, providing encouragement and useful tips to help you get better. This is especially useful during that last few km when energy reserves are spent with the finishing line in sight. At work, building a business, in life, in faith, one can't do it alone.

What next?

Looking forward to resting limbs and grabbing a few extra minutes of sleep before planning for the next marathon. A marathon race (or two?) each year couple with time in the gym, or kettlebells (more on these another time) is the general plan for as long as I'm able to. For now, I shall resist the call of Comrades (:/).

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,² looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." ~ Hebrews 12:1-2, ESV