Marathon Training: Week 16 is up on Answering Oliver.
Here’s an excerpt:
I spent Saturday at the TEDxRainier conference at the University of Washington, where I heard 30 speakers discuss every topic you can think of — business, travel, religion, happiness, grief, sex, the environment, neuroscience and more.
Will Hewett spoke about the year he spent singing for 15 minutes every single day. At first he had to work to complete the 15 minutes, but eventually singing grew to be such a joyful activity that he sang for an hour at a time, oftentimes in public. He said two things about this practice that stuck with me:
“It was like a fire that the rest of my day gathered around.”
“Time bows to authentic commitment, and it stretches to accommodate it.”
This is how I feel about running. It is the fire in my day, the light that draws me to lace up my running shoes even when it’s dark outside. It is my authentic commitment, the one thing I refuse to wipe off my schedule when other activities come knocking.
Sure, I’ve missed a few miles along the way, but even through a breakup and a death in the family, through a funeral and a vacation, through scorching sun and freezing rain, I’ve kept running. It strengthens me when I feel weak and gives me purpose when I’ve lost aim.
All of this is about so much more than a finish line.
Dev on Running 