Run Your Own Race!

~ Guest post by Hope Reid, D.C. ~

Hope Reid, D.C.

This morning, in an effort to run faster and longer, my running buddy Janille and I decided to do interval training. The plan was to sprint as fast as we can for a quarter mile, then cool down for a quarter mile, then sprint again and so on. Janille happens to be a more seasoned runner than I am. For the first interval, my goal was to try to keep up with her. I started out as fast as I could. Halfway into the sprint, I became extremely exhausted and had to slow down in order to finish. It was difficult trying to catch my breath and recover. During the second interval, I was even more determined to keep up with her. To my dismay, I burned out faster than the previous interval. After another quarter mile recovery, I said to Janille, "How to you manage to run so fast and look so calm?" She said that she increase her speed gradually and basically do what she feels. Then she said something that totally put things into perspective for me.


She said "Hope, you gotta run your own race."


Simple, yet profound in that moment for me. Janille and I are on two very different levels when it comes to running. Although we were running "together" at the same place and time, we were running two individual races. The third and final interval, I decided to do just that...run my own race. I started out with a much slower pace. Halfway through, I still had enough energy to give it my all in the final stretch. I felt much better and the recovery was also better.


How many times in life do we look at other people and perceive them as our competition. We look at their successes and failures as the bar by which we measure our own life. We become preoccupied with either catching up or making sure we stay ahead. Often time we fail to consider the years of hard work, preparation, and discipline it took as well as the tears and challenges they had to overcome to get to where they are in life. When we begin to dwell on what others are doing, we tend to lose focus and become distracted from our own race.


Whose race are you running? Have you been so absorbed with checking out the competition that you've deviated from your course? The bible reminds us to run the race that is set before us. I believe that God has placed a specific course with unique experiences, trials and triumphs for each of us to run in this life. While there are those who can motivate, inspire and encourage us, let us remember to always look to Jesus for the strength and patience required to endure this race. Let’s run our own race!

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us...Heb.12:1

When Hope isn't running her chiropractic business, taking care of patients, educating the community, being a good wife, an involved mother, an engaging sister and friend, she's writing all about it in her blog, Defining Hope.