Her heart pounds through her chest and she feels certain it’s going to burst through her vest top as she pushes on through the pain. To the world everything is quiet, save the low thunk thunk thunk of her Nike’s connecting with the earth.

TO GINGELL THE WORLD HAS DISAPPEARED, she glides into the realm of Prodigy and The Crystal Method as they pound out the beat of her footfalls into her ears. 

Thousands like her across the world are doing the exact same thing at that exact same moment. Running, without a particular reason to run except for chasing the endorphin hit that seems to be just out of reach.

Running alone, their only company an ipod nano and the familiar voice of their Nike+ counting out the Km’s pounded.

I guess for a long time ‘fitness-a-phobe’ me has just looked at runners in disbelief and thought ha! What’s the point in it all? Why run? Recently I discovered there’s more to running than just getting sweaty, more than the health benefits and more than chasing the happy chemicals.

It took the patience of my housemate Sarah Gingell to teach me not only about health but also – although she doesn’t realise it - about healthy living with God.

We can learn a lot from running to apply to everyday life.

Let me start by saying, at the moment I can’t run, my feeble attempts at five minutes on the treadmill every now and again would hardly categorize me as Olympic standard, but as said before everyone has to start somewhere right?

I’ve learned from Gingell that running requires certain characteristics: determination, consistency, a positive attitude, stamina and, of course, a decent song. Watching her run I’ve learned a lot of things about running physically and also running the race of life as I see these basic principles transferring themselves into other aspects of Gingell’s everyday activities.

 Determination – keeping on going, not letting things stop us.

Gingell has exercise induced asthma, she explained it to me once like this: ‘I get to a certain point when running and breathing becomes more difficult, it’s like having a heavy cold, you can feel your throat close up and then everything gets all clogged up with gunk.’  Undeterred by this she keeps running, perhaps pacing herself more so she can deal with it, but she carries on despite it.

Keep going, but not in your own strength!

‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.’ Phillipians 4vs3

How many times have you gone to do something but then been stopped by something small, a fear, a setback, a harsh word? Did you keep going? Or did you give up and do something else? Running teaches determination, pushing past the initial pain – perhaps slowing you down a little – but mustering up a new release of energy an urge to push onwards and forwards, to keep covering ground.

When we decide to do things for God the one person who is always going to try and stop us is the Devil, perhaps he’ll slow you down and fling hurdles in your way, but don’t let him stop you. Push on through and jump the obstacles because your not alone.

Consistency - being constant, consistent and almost repetitive

With any sport there’s risk of injury a time when the body needs to regroup and recover. Perhaps this means quitting for a few days or weeks to get back into the swing of things.

When you run regularly your body kind of  ‘powers up’ to deal with the extra strain it goes through and when you take time out the body ‘powers down’ slightly – as you get out of routine your muscles lose the slightest bit of strength – making getting back into the game harder the next time you come to run.

Power down so God can power you up.

It’s important to know in life when you need to let your body and mind ‘power down’ for a while. Just stepping out for a quiet time with God should be a consistent part of every Christian’s life and part of getting closer in your walk – or in this case run- with him. When we stop spending time with God, the longer we quit for, the harder it is to get back into.

Consistently pushing yourself is good for your body and mind but it’s valuable to know when you should take a time out – to be with God.

Stamina building and encouragement!

Unfortunately we are not all gifted with excellent stamina; it’s one of those things that has to be built up gradually in order for us to get anywhere.

As a beginner, attempting to run 6km flat out is not a good idea for your first attempt.

Our inspiration in this piece, Sarah, now runs 7km at a time and is slowly building up to a 10km sponsored run later in the year.

Saying this, she started exactly where I am now.

Reading the Bible – Stamina building

Reading the Bible is exactly the same, attempting to read the whole thing in one day is a daunting, if impossible, task for anyone.

Breaking it down into books, chapters and even inspirational verses is a great way to get started and slowly build up.

Having someone to encourage you always helps, the amount of times I’ve been in the gym this semester and Gingell has turned around, stuck her tongue out at me and then told me to get off the bike and back on the arch trainer/treadmill, just this tiny encouragement made me keep going and trying new things.

 

Find your decent song and make music!

“God is the DJ, Life is the dancefloor, love is the rythmn, you are the music” ~ Pink!

Pink says it pretty well here, a philosophy for life put succinctly into one line of song lyrics. Fair enough it’s probably not a great track to run to but lyrically it’s one to keep in mind. 

As you run, walk, jog, sprint, crawl or wheel through life make God your DJ or on a runnnig theme your personal trainer.

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