When You're By Yourself...

Many years ago, I was watching a college football game.  A receiver received a pass in the flat, and just as he turned around, a linebacker crushed him.  The play-by-play man said to his partner, "You've been in that situation.  What's it like to be out there by yourself?"  The answer was, "When you're out there by yourself, that's when you're all alone."  REALLY? 

This past Thursday, I was scheduled for an "interval" run.  It was a "double step up--step down run," which means I was going to sprint 200 meters, 200 meters, 400 meters, 400 meters, 600 meters, 600 meters, a mile, then a 600, a 400, and a 200.  Between each "sprint," I was to jog a 400 except that after the mile I was to jog a mile and a half.  The total workout was 7.5 miles, and the goal is to develop extra speed by improving the "fast twitch" muscles.   So what, you ask?

Well, I went to the local high school track at 6:20 a.m. to get the thing over with, and found that the track was locked.  All entrances were chained shut.  PRAISE THE LORD! I thought.  God must be telling me to take the day off.  I drove home wondering if that was really what God was doing, but knowing that I needed access to the track to complete the run.  That evening, Nancy and I went to the open house at the Middle School, and I took my running stuff and drove separately, in case I decided to run AFTER that. Yeah, right!

When the Open House ended and I made my way to the track it was 9:22 p.m.  The track was dark.  No one was there.  I was all by myself--but I was not alone.  That's the point.  My running time is always prayer time.  I have a friend who is my "trainer."  He had given me the "formula" for this interval run.  He also told me, "You probably won't do it by yourself."  But there I was.  As I ran the first 200, noted the time, and started jogging, I thought, "Maybe I'll cut a few laps off that mile-and-a-half jog in the middle.  But as I ran each distance, and prayed for strength to FINISH, I thought, "I'm never alone--NEVER." It was one of those great times when a truth you've always known becomes experientially true in a way it hasn't before.  I felt God in me, with me and encouraging me.  When I finished it was 10:50 p.m.  I was DEAD, but I wasn't alone.  Intervals come again, with a different "formula" this Thursday, but it's okay, because although I'll be out there by myself, I won't be alone!