26 November 2011: Beginning to Taper

A couple weeks ago I went to a concert with two of my friends. When I arrived at the meeting place, my friend posed an interesting question which I'll now paraphrase: Why am I more excited about driving an hour and a half with two guys to pay money to get into some club where the lights will be low, people will smell of various stenches, and some guy will stand on a stage for less time than we'll spend in the car tonight, only to get home late (while I still have to work in the morning) than I am about driving five minutes down the road to hear a guy preach and maybe sing some songs I know? (Yeah, that's a long question, but it's pretty close to what he asked.) There's no simple answer, but the question reminded me of a popular word in the church today: community.

In 2005, my wife and I met some friends at a small Christian college in Pennsylvania to see this musician named Jeff Tweedy participate in conference on faith and pop culture. During his set, Tweedy, an out-spoken opponent to any organized religion, said part of the reason he doesn't step foot inside a church is that he experiences more authentic connections with people at rock concerts. As a professing Christian (and regular churchgoer) and music fan (and regular concert-goer), I concur. (Note: Plenty of criticisms have been lobbied against the church, and I won't offer them here. I agree with Mr. Tweedy because there's a willing brokenness at rock concerts, both from the audience and from the artist.)

What does all this have to do with a marathon training update? Authentic community is one of the reasons I'm addicted to running in general and races in particular. I have said several times that participating in a race is what church should look like: admitted brokenness (cramping, bleeding nipples, weeping) surrounded by folks experiencing the same thing, while everyone there is striving for the same goal. Heck, even the spectators have sacrificed for this all to happen. I try to remember and pray for each of you during my long runs because I know you've sacrificed in order to partner with me during this process. So here's to the community of runners! And, for kicks, here's a list of folks (however incomplete) with whom I've run over the last two years, whether during a race, training run, or just for fun:

Jean, DanO, JasonK, JasonS, Molly, Greg, Tim, Angelo, Dave, Eric, Brad, Jon, Ronnie, Melissa, Erica, Aaron, Kim, Adrian, DanR, Brandi, TammyL, TammyO.

And now for this week's training runs:

Monday, 11/21: 4.05 miles; 8:45/mile

Wednesday, 11/23: 8.54 miles; 7:59/mile

Thursday, 11/24: 3.62 miles; 8:40/mile

Saturday, 11/26: 12.34 miles; 8:13/mile

And now for some goofy video links…

Jeff Tweedy singing "I Gotta Feelin"

Marathon Thoughts

As always, please consider spreading the word about Mentor Leaders (www.mentorleaders.org) and the donation campaign through my first marathon (www.active.com/donate/rb4runwater). If you'd like to see past training updates, you can read them here: http://runningwithrb.blogspot.com/

Next week, information on more ways to help the people of Gbentchal.

RB