For the Long Run

Full of determination, we are great in the short run; but when the ‘everydayness’ begins to set in, we lose interest. ~ Voices of Recovery (Kindle Locations 2074-2075).

The diet mentality has lots to do with it.
For years we resolved to lose weight,
worked hard at it, maybe lost it,
maybe not, but it ended. Relatively...
often tragically...soon. We became sprinters...
well, not really. The legs, the loss of breath,
the fat we lugged with us step after step
kept us from sprinting, but the expectation was there.
We didn't have to run a marathon, just a sprint,
and our bodies would be fine, our lives aligned,
our world bright.

Then we signed on,
not for a marathon but for an Ironman,
or closer to a double or triple Ironman,
a bike race across America, the Tor des Geants...more than the mind can conceive or great athletes do.
It's the race of a lifetime because, well, it lasts a lifetime,
day after day, year after year, one day at a time
through the chasms of boredom, the pitfalls of pride,
the disillusionment of exhaustion, the dungeons of doubt.
But we run it, keep on keeping on, and the race is the prize,
the repetitiveness the goal, for we're not here for a sprint.
We're racing for our lives.