So far, I have liked it. This quote stood out to me as I was reading about "great runners:"
Over the course of several years at Southeastern, as Denton's reputation grew, a number of undergraduate runners decided they would train with him, thinking to pick up on the Secret. A new man would show up the first day expecting all manner of horrific exertion, and would be stunned and giddy to find he could so easily make it through one of Denton's calendar days. Showing up the second morning at 6:30 he would be of good cheer, perhaps trying to imagine how he would handle the pressure of his inevitable fame. That day would also go well enough, but he would begin to notice something peculiar. There was no letup. The tempo was always moderate but steady. If a new guy decided to pick up the pace, that's where it stayed, whether he finished with the group or not. You showed off at your peril.
On the third day (assuming the new man made it that far) his outlook would begin to darken. For one thing, he was getting very, very tired. No particular day wore him out, but the accumulation of steady mileage began to take its toll. He never quite recovered fully between workouts and soon found himself walking around in a more or less constant state of fatigue-depression, a phase Denton called "breaking down." The new runner would find it more tedious than he could bear. The awful truth would begin to dawn on him: there was no Secret! His days would have to be spent in exactly this manner, give or take a mile or two, for longer than he cared to think about, if he really wanted to see the olive wreath up close. It would simply be the most difficult, heartrending process he would endure in the course of his life.
At that point most of them would drift away. They would search within themselves somewhere along a dusty ten-mile trail or during the bad part of a really gut-churning 440 on the track, and find some key element missing. Sheepishly they would begin to miss workouts, then stop showing up altogether. They would convince themselves: there must be another way, there has to be. The attrition rate was nearly a hundred percent.
This definitely applies to physical training. Indeed, my own running has begun to, ahem, slip, as it is usually either conveniently raining or I find something much more "important" to do. However, what immediately came to mind was a quote from the former prophet and president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Gordon B. Hinckley (who was, in fact, quoting Jenkin Lloyd Jones, a Unitarian minister). He said,
“Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he has been robbed. The fact is that most putts don’t drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to be just like people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, and most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. Life is just like an old time rail journey ... delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride.”
Yep, running can be monotonous, draining, and extremely difficult...and so can our lives. But God gave us this opportunity at life to experience, to grow and to learn. I believe as we patiently endure whatever it is we are going through, we learn and grow. I also believe a loving Heavenly Father would not ask us to endure without providing wonderful blessings both now and in the eternities. So as we are running around the dusty track once again or bouncing up and down on the bumpy, noisy train, let us notice the blessings that too often are drowned out by the difficulties we are facing.
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