Personal Records are not Set at the Finish Line

In an earlier post I mentioned a ring-box I had received as a Christmas gift years ago with the saying “the journey, not the arrival, matters” written on the side. While running Cross Country in college I have come to a new understanding of this saying and how it applies to my life. Before I began to run Cross Country, I always assumed it was only a physically demanding sport and running was really all there was to it. It is certainly incredibly physically demanding, but it is also an incredibly mentally demanding as well as a very strategic sport. You have to be able to gauge your strength, fitness, and energy for each course to know how hard to push and how fast to run at what point in the race. If you begin the race too quickly, you will burn yourself out and have nothing left at the end, or even halfway through. While running a 6K race (3.7 miles) several weeks ago our coach was on the sidelines at about mile 2, yelling encouragement and advice. What he said about PR (personal record, referring to the time it takes each runner to complete the distance) really struck me. “This is where you run your PR. You don’t run your PR at the finish line. It’s made out here.”

So often we think we can coast through a responsibility and then make up for our lack of work at the end by putting forth our hardest effort. Sometimes this works. Sometimes it doesn’t. When you are running a 6K race it is easy to allow your pace to slow throughout the course and not to run your hardest until the very end. You must pace yourself and be able to ensure that you have enough speed left at the end to finish. But the race is not won at the finish line. The race is won on the course. In Cross Country, one of the biggest goals of a runner is simply to beat their previous time at that distance. This cannot be by running a slow pace throughout the course and then sprinting to the end. The race is won on the course, not at the finish line.

In all areas of our life we must be strive to put forth our best effort and to push ourselves beyond what we think we can do. We cannot avoid something and then try and make up for that avoidance by cramming in time and energy at the end. This applies in all areas of our lives; from cramming for exams, to haphazardly throwing together a project the night before it is due, to winging that presentation at work. Sprinting to the finish line will not compensate for walking the course. This is something I have great difficulty with. I am a very results driven person. For my day to feel worthwhile and satisfactory I have to have done something, to completed something and been able to cross something off of my list. It is often very difficult for me to consider it a productive and worthwhile day if I worked on projects and made headway, but did not actually complete anything. It is hard to see the progress that I am making if it has yet to give me a finished product. Just like on the race course, in other areas of life it often feels like I am getting nowhere and simply running slower and slower. But if I do not put in the time I will never get the satisfaction of crossing that finish line or of completing a project.

Sometimes it is hard to remember why we are putting forth so much effort. I in no way consider myself an athlete (though I am told by others that biking across the country and running Cross Country certainly qualify me as one). Every time I step up to the starting line for a race the thought that runs through my head is “why am I doing this again?” Honestly, I hate racing. It is hard work. It hurts. It pushes you past your limits and that isn’t always a comfortable place to be. It forces you to dig deep with yourself, physically and mentally, to find something more. But to finish, to finish is a glorious thing. To run across that finish line, to know that you completed another race, to know it is behind you. That is a wonderful feeling. For me personally, I do not come in first. I am not a runner. I am not that fast. My competition is myself and my previous time. But if I am going to beat my own time, I have to be willing to push myself and to work at it as soon as I leave the starting line. To put my all into the place I am at, whether it is in the first ten feet or the last 100 yards. If I want to succeed I have to be willing to work at it from the very beginning. Personal Records are set not at the finish line but at every mile leading up to it.