My Personal Best

As you are no doubt aware, when it comes to real exercise, nobody in the Brand family better impersonates a giant slug than yours truly. I've been thinking about getting into running for quite some time now. It's not that I really like running. I just like the idea of running. You know, the idea of being in shape and having good looking legs, and not wheezing like our dog Joy every time I climb the stairs or walk more than 20 yards at a time.

So I like the thought of being a runner, and I've thought about it occasionally over the last few years. And every time i think about it, I lie down until I'm able to think about something else, which usually happens in 4 or 5 seconds.


Every time, that is, until about a month ago.

A month ago, Brittney tricked me into doing more than just thinking about it. Somehow she got me to actually sign up for a race. And as you probably know, it's not just any race, but a half marathon. Could we have done a 5K or something reasonable for a first race? Oh no. It's got to be a half marathon. 13.1 miles of fun on August 8th. And we have to be there in the Provo canyon at some awful hour like 5:30am. In the morning. I think I've got a pretty good testimony that the Lord made all the hours between 8am and midnight. And it's a pretty sure bet that the devil made all the others.

The good news is that I've actually stuck with the running thing now for a few weeks, and it has reminded me that having a hard fast deadline can help you stick to a goal and a schedule like nothing else can. I've been running 3 days per week without fail, sometimes 4 days, for a month now, and I guarantee you that without that August 8th deadline, I wound have found a way to miss a bunch of those running days.

Saturday, July 4th, I ran farther than this almost-49 year old body has perhaps ever run without stopping. A total of 4.4 miles. I was sure it was over 5 miles at the time, but tonight I drove it in the car and the odometer says 4.4 miles. Even so, that's a personal best. And in doing my personal best, it doesn't really matter at all that there are about 5.61 billion people on earth that can run farther and faster than me. It doesn't even matter that at least 7 or 8 of those people are better looking that me too. I just feel great that I did my personal best and its good to experience a sense of accomplishment and progress toward a goal. It's good medicine.