Trending
For me, my favorite sport has been a means of deepening my relationship with God.
I started running again at the end of February this year. Now I've run, or walked, or biked, at least one day a week for the past 38 weeks. It's been six days of exercising most weeks.
Yes, my favorite sport is running, along with my new found love this summer: road biking. I just love cardio sports.
Running has been a part of my life for a very long time. My mom was an avid runner and ran half marathons every year as I was growing up. I started running in third grade through the Girls on the Run program which my mom helped coach for a few years. I continued running on the cross country and track teams in middle school and high school. In college I opted not to continue with those sports and ran on my own for exercise. That became part of my regular morning routine through most of college.
When I moved to Alpena almost two years ago now, I didn't run in the winter at all my first year. In the spring and summer I ran maybe three to four days a week and stopped running last September.
When I ran for the first time at the end of February this year, it was in the midst of Lent. On some of my runs in March I prayed a rosary as I was running to help reach the four a day I had promised to pray.
I counted each prayer on my fingers inside my Green Bay Packer mittens. I like the rhythm of praying during a run and have done it a few times since, although it has to be intentional or my mind wanders.
I don't listen to any music or podcasts when I run and I never have. That was instilled into me by my high school coaches. I know a lot of gym-goers and runners that might find that strange, but I enjoy the silence. There's already too much noise in the world and the silence allows me to just be entertained by whatever is going on in my head: commentary on the animals and people I come across, the songs stuck in my head, or the problems I'm trying to work through.
Running as a part of my routine reduces my stress and anxiety. When I run in the morning it helps wake me up. When I run in the evening it helps me relax. Overall I have a healthier body and mind.
When I ran in college, I'd run a route that was about a mile and a half out to a lake from campus. There was a spot there I'd pause my watch and look at the sunrise over the water for a while and pray. Sometimes I'd cry, sometimes I'd rejoice. That was my introvert time for the day before classes and working as a writing tutor.
The main lesson I've learned from running is perseverance, especially when racing. Racing, really racing, is uncomfortable. It hurts. And yet I could still find it in myself to sprint down the shoot and pass one more person. The final kick creates champions, but it also creates camaraderie and respect. I often remember opponents after cross country races congratulating me and I, them.
That perseverance has translated into every area of my life. I don't quit things easily. I don't allow the difficulties of life to affect my faith and trust in God, in fact, in some of the lowest moments of my life I've felt God's presence draw closer.
I do wonder if it's the other way around, that I started and continue to run because God gave me the gift of perseverance to begin with. And now the gift is growing through running, like a mutual symbiotic relationship.
Running has taught me to be gritty, to keep pushing to the finish line even when it's tough, to keep showing up for friends and grabbing their jerseys to pull them along, to struggle up the hills and fly fast down the hills. It has taught me to go out and brave the muddy trails, to run the course that the Lord has set before me and take it all in stride.