* Coffee, Third Place hospitality, etc
* Philosophy and similar conversations
* Music/Jazz

Soon I’ll be able to count running among those successfully integrated passions.

Recently, a student who is part of our Edge House campus ministry community began training for the Flying Pig (Cincinnati’s annual spring marathon) and got the marvelous idea of creating some sort of running club. So on the Monday after Spring Break, we’ll meet for our first group run and meander around the campus a couple of times.

I’m looking forward to seeing how many students want to mix up a little Edge House hospitality with their mileage and fitness goals. It will certainly give me a great excuse to start each week with a few miles and conversations!

This post will border on the mundane and have a journal-ish feel to it. Since that type of daily documentation is not a discipline I’m able to maintain, I’ve decided to occasionally throw a dose of it into the mix here. Chances are good that I’ll inadvertently touch on those themes of campus, coffee, and faith as well.

Running:

Many have commented on my apparent passion and devotion to physical activity. Of late, running is my thing. Though I often throw in a bike ride or a P90X workout, lacing up and conquering about 5 or 8 miles of pavement/trail is what pushes me these days. I ran my first marathon in Columbus, OH back in the Fall of 2008. Over the past few months, I’ve run marathons in Atlanta, Louisville, Green Bay, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. This coming November I’ll run my 10th marathon in 7 different states. Qualifying for the Boston Marathon is the current dream-accomplishment which motivates me to keep carving out space and time in my schedule. Originally, I had hoped to qualify for the 2011 running of the famous Boston event, but that dream is drifting away from me at this point. Staying motivated is going to be a real test of will over the next few weeks. Will I push to keep that dream alive or just settle for a decent finishing time in Indianapolis on November 6th? Whether or not I’m able to qualify for Boston this time around, I do hope to set a new PR of 3:45 or better.

Campus Ministry:

This is my second year at the University of Cincinnati. Working cooperatively with the CCO and the Church of the Nazarene has provided a tremendous opportunity for me to invest in the lives of college students in and around Cincinnati. The Edge House has provided a unique context for me to engage students and share some serious hospitality. We are three days into “Welcome Week” and what some campus ministers have said is that if you’re not totally exhausted by the end of this week, then you’re not doing it right!  Ha, ha…I’m exhausted and the week is only half over. We’ll see if I can translate some of that marathon endurance into ministry and relational endurance.

Parenthood:

Honestly, my greatest challenge at the moment has to do with my two beautiful girls…Jess & Jaquey. As Jessica begins 6th grade and transitions towards those teen years and junior, I am noticing the need to shift into some new parenting gears. More than ever, she needs a dad loves and listens well. My first reaction, when it comes to conflict, is to flex those paternal muscle fibers and “fix” the problems. Something tells me that’s not the best approach any more (perhaps it never was). For some reason, my relationship with Jaquey seems to come a bit easier. She’s definitely daddy’s little girl and for the moment (at age 7) seems content with our relational patterns. And with a baby boy on the way, things probably won’t get much easier for awhile. 

Spiritually Speaking:

First of all, I’ll point out (in case you haven’t already noticed this from previous posts) that I agree with the statement “Everything is spiritual.” So this last paragraph is not ‘spiritual’ and the rest of the post is ‘non-spiritual.’ But I’ll wrap up by just saying a few things about my journey in the faith (spiritual formation) and towards becoming more like Christ (sanctification). Being formed and shaped by God’s Word within the context of community takes some serious intentionality. The summer has really been tough in terms of “religious” routine. I’m looking forward to the daily discipline and practices, which much like a marathon training plan, will lead to a healthier soul.

Even as I finished reading just a few days before my September marathon, I knew that some of the energy he translated into written form would be absorbed into my system and help me push a little more in my training than I might have otherwise.

As one who believes strongly in the connection between body-mind-soul…reading this book adds to the physical motivation I need to stay on top of my own health & fitness. When I’m healthy and fit, I’m a better person emotionally/mentally. And I learned many years ago that being disciplined physically often translates into my ability to commit to the kind of daily practices spiritually which position me to be transformed more and more into the likeness of Christ. It’s certainly something that only God can do but that tension of cooperation with God’s sovereignty is something I make every “effort” to live into every day.

I remember being humored by the statement but not heeding the admonition. Perhaps that was because I was still in my early twenties and convinced that I could rise above the normal human experience and be more “productive” with my time. Sleep seemed like an obstacle in my path of maximum accomplishment.

As I reflect on this subject and share my thoughts, I am cloistered away for a weekend of spiritual retreat and soul keeping. The fall quarter of campus activity is about to begin at the University of Cincinnati where I’m engaged in the sharing of life, faith, ministry, hospitality, etc. One of the lessons that I’ve learned having survived my second and third decades of life is that there is indeed something spiritual about sleep and rest. In even more general terms, everything about life is spiritual in that there is nothing that escapes God’s concern and sovereignty.

Back in 2006, Lauren Winner wrote an insightful article for Books & Culture on this very topic which you can read here. At one point she links to the National Sleep Foundation whose mission is to “Wake America to the Importance of sleep.” Catchy, huh?!  One of Lauren’s emphases focuses on the motivation that is often behind our choice to sleep less: work and productivity. However subtle the implications may be, our desire to be more productive and driven ignores the way in which our bodies were created and designed to thrive.

Not many texts in the Bible deal with sleep directly but often use it as a metaphor (be watchful and prepared in 1 Thess 5, don’t be lazy in Proverbs, etc). But if we take the humanity of Jesus seriously, we cannot ignore what it means to flourish as human beings. Psalm 127 indicates that sleep is a gift: “It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.” So sleep is not a weakness to overcome in our quest for greater productivity. Sleep is a gift which we must steward well so that our waking hours will find us at optimal health.

For college students, there may indeed be seasons which demand more sleepless nights than other. Many times, however, this condition is self-inflicted. One of the toughest challenges a new college student faces is time management and academic discipline. But to be fair, as Dr. Breus points out in his recent article “A New Challenge for College Students: The Freshman 8, Not 15!” the new environment, new freedoms, and new influences all contribute to reducing the average college students’ sleep schedule to about 6 hours of sleep per night. And I often hear of students claiming much less than that during a normal week of classes(especially DAAP students here in Cincinnati).

Unfortunately, there are many daily life choices and issues which we tend to separate into a “that’s not spiritual” kind of category. In that list we might include sleep, food choices, spending habits, vocation, time management, etc. The truth is that God is not limited to the kind of systematic categorizations and compartments into which we are capable of chopping and distributing our lives. In fact, God is keenly interested in every aspect of life, including the roughly one-third of our day which most experts agree we should be sleeping.

Since being well rested impacts our relationships, our attitudes, our faithfulness to academic and vocational pursuits, and many other areas of our lives…getting a good night’s sleep could be one of the most spiritual things you do today.

After meandering dowtown and scoping out a good parking spot, I loaded my bag and started walking towards the Statehouse/Start Line. The Columbus marathon is a great scene as the runners and spectators gather and fill in a couple of blocks’ worth of Broad Street. The energy and excitement of the crowd seemed to raise the temperature a few degrees as many went through their stretching and warm-up routines.

My plan was to let the pack get through the start line and then work my way up to the pace group of choice. In retrospect, I’m not sure that turned out to be a good plan because the crowd of runners didn’t thin out much until the half-way point.

During the first 5-6 miles I was hitting a pace of about 8:45 and thought that I could trim that to an 8:30 pace by the half-way point. Unfortunately, the pain in my right hip which had become a familiar issue over the past few weeks alerted my brain that today’s run would be no different. By mile 7, I was already having to adjust my gait and stride in some subtle ways to deal with the discomfort. That was my first warning for just how tough the day’s run would be.

I took some 1-minute walk breaks at miles 6, 8, 12, 14, 18, 20, & 22. Early on, the walk breaks were just preventative…giving me a few opportunities for recovery. However, the last 3 walk breaks were out of necessity.

My splits were: 9:13; 8:40; 8:37; 8:29; 8:38; 8:43; 9:55; 9:04; 10:47; 9:15; 8:56; 9:00; 8:50; 8:45; 9:04; 10:49; 9:07; 9:06; 9:19; 9:21; 14:06; 8:04; 7:47; 9:20; 9:28; 11:47

It’s easy to recall from these times what happened to my plan!  The first six miles were run at a pretty decent pace…average around 8:40. During mile 7 was my first walk break. Mile 8 was okay but then I took a longer walk break (with water & gel) during mile 9. Miles 10-15 were fairly strong. Although I could feel the hip/bursitis/whatever in my right leg…it really wasn’t slowing me down. This 5-mile stretch had an average pace of about 9:00 or just under. After mile 15 was another gel/water/walk break which went on a bit too long. The next 4 miles were difficult and fatigue was beginning to set in. Unlike my run in Dayton a month earlier…cramps began to be an issue here, especially in my left calf. This led to an extended walk break during mile 21 in which I also decided to take off my jacket and underarmor cap. Trying to pack this gear into my spibelt pocket proved to be impossible so I decided to tie the jacket around my waste…but I lost about 3 minutes messing with the clothing.

After the long walk break, though, I decided it was time to pick up the pace and believed that I could still finish in under 4 hours. I knew it would take about an 8:30 pace for the duration however. That proved to be a more demanding request than my body could accommodate. As I look at my splits for miles 22 & 23 now, I realize that I tried pushing it a little too much there. Miles 24-25 required that I let up on the gas somewhat and then during the final mile I had a serious cramp attacking both calves. With about .70 to go the crowd began to get thicker and rowdier which always helps me push through at the end.

As I analyze what happened today, I can easily see the mistakes which added approximately 8 minutes onto my time. Beyond those mistakes I would say that there’s evidence of improper training between these last two marathons. Or perhaps 4 weeks between events is not a good idea for adequate recovery and preparation.

Regardless of the disappointing time and finish, I need to focus on the fact that there’s another 26.2 mile event under my belt. And today was my marathon birthday…or the anniversary, you might say, of my first marathon achievement. 1 year ago today I ran my first 26.2 in Columbus at a time of 4:59:51. Today’s time was 4:02:30. So overall, there was a great deal of improvement during this year of training. I am quite content with that. Of course, part of my contentment has to do with the vision which is already taking shape in my head for the 2010 marathon season. I believe I’ll be kicking that off in April with the Kentucky Derby Marathon.