The Breath You Exhale Sustaining Me |
 | Yesterday I began my countdown to the 35-mile Georgia Jewel. For the next two weeks leading up to this race - my first ultra marathon - I'll be reflecting on a song that's been a source of strength in this first ultra journey. The song is Confident by Steffany Gretzinger. Yesterday I reflected on the first line in the song: you're always moving in the unseen. Today I'll talk about the next line - the breath you exhale sustaining me. One of the biggest lessons I've learned about running in this running journey is the importance of breathing. I'm not just talking about the many times I've been out there running and |
wondering if maybe I'd just experienced my final breath. I'm talking about breathing as an art form. As a rhythm. There's a lot of science to suggest that breathing with intention when you run will help you run better and prevent injuries - (How to Breathe While Running to Prevent Injury and Improve Performance). This article suggests there's an optimal time to inhale and exhale relative to when your feet are hitting the ground.
So it sounds like this running thing has the potential to be more complicated than put your shoes on and go run.
I'm not sure I'll ever embrace the whole idea of my footsteps and breathing finding a poetic running rhythm - dancing together as one. When I run, my thoughts about breathing are more about not dying than they are about thriving. But that's become a foundation of my running mission. I intentionally look for places where I'll fail big if I don't create space for God to show up big. The Georgia Jewel, with its 35 miles and thousands of feet of elevation gain, it's one of those spaces.
Through my breathing, that's definitely how God shows up. When running gets hard I feel it first in my tired and hurting legs, and in my labored breathing. I always try to ignore the legs, but I do focus on the breathing. It's never lost on me that within the deep, tired breaths I fight to draw in, comes so much of the world around me. I'm literally bringing into me the air that surrounds me, and exhaling the struggles that inhabit me. For me it's symbolic to imagine breathing in God's strength, breathing out my weakness.
Usually it only takes me getting a mile or two into a run to discover my weakness. That's why this running journey has become about God's strength not mine. It's become about breathing the breath God exhales in, spilling mine out.
Climbing those mountains in Georgia, I'll need a lot of his breath.
 Click above to donate to help Giving Words help Kate. | I am honored to run this race for Giving Words and my friend Kate Fletcher. I got to know Kate when I interviewed her on my TwoTim47 podcast after she ran 100 miles to raise scholarship money for her Louisa County High students. I was taken by her heart and spirit for using running to help others. You can listen to my conversation with Kate here: High School Teacher Kate Fletcher Runs 100 Miles For Student Scholarships. In the interview, I had no idea Kate had needs of her own. Her humble spirit won't give things like that away. But Kate lives in a house with some significant structural challenges. So I'm partnering with my friend Eddie Brown and Giving Words to help her. I'm hoping to find 100 people to donate $35 - one dollar for each mile of that Georgia Jewel run. |
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