Run the Mile You're In by Ryan Hall

Author:Ryan Hall
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2019-02-25T16:00:00+00:00

MILE 15

Pain

Often I described my job as a professional runner as being a professional pain manager. That’s how it felt when I was twenty miles into a marathon and everything in my body was on fire and I still had more than six miles of hard running to go. I vividly remember being at the top of the Boston Marathon’s famed Heartbreak Hill and thinking, There has got to be an easier way to make a living than this! Despite the pain, I usually could manage to focus on what felt good, rather than focusing on all the muscles that were screaming at me to stop, a tactic I learned from my dad when I was getting into the sport. I could always tell when I didn’t have much left—my forearms would start to hurt, and that was usually the last muscle group to give out. I often felt that the level to which I could perform was determined by the amount of pain I could overcome. Thus, much of my running career was spent learning to overcome pain.

I tried a lot of strategies to push harder when confronted with immense pain. I tried listening to really loud music when I ran. I tried focusing on my goals. I tried telling myself over and over that I needed to push myself harder than I’d ever pushed before. I tried reverse psychology, attempting to convince myself that I loved pain. I tried reciting Bible verses, praying, focusing on the positive. I even tried to zone out, emptying my mind in an attempt not to think about the pain. Some of these strategies were effective to a certain level—and they rightfully have their place in the business of pain management—but the most effective way for me to manage my pain was something I discovered much later in my career.

When I was running, I often felt myself wondering how Jesus was able to handle the unimaginable pain He experienced on the cross. I found myself asking God how to handle pain, and eventually I felt He led me to Hebrews 12:1–2: “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

I found this passage to be an answer for how to handle suffering. “For the joy set before Him” was the best way for Jesus to overcome pain, and it is also the best way for us to overcome our suffering. We overcome pain by finding joy. But how do we find joy while we’re suffering? These seem like two very different—contradictory, even—experiences. And what was this joy that Jesus had set before Him? I’m not

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