Thirteen Years Ago I Went for a Run

It was the first time I ran with purpose.

I began running a couple of months before this momentous run, but my runs were all pretty scattered with no focus.

Then, I heard about this strange race called The Marine Corps Marathon. I didn’t have a clue what a marathon was before I signed up, but I was intrigued about using it to honor family friends whose son had lost a leg in the war in Afghanistan.

At the time, I was still very large at over 240 pounds, and I didn’t run in real shoes. Instead, I kind of bounced along in my Kangoo © boots.

I had no idea where to start training for a marathon, but figured it involved getting my overweight behind out of the easy chair for a start.

That was where I found myself thirteen years ago, standing in my driveway with my boots buckled, and getting ready to tackle running to the lake near our townhome and back, a nearly two-mile run.

This was the moment when my life changed for the better, and I stopped the pity party I had been having for myself for the past three years after the biggest failure of my life had kicked my ass back to the United States from my brief time in the former Soviet Union.

This was the day I stopped living in the past, and began living life with a purpose.

Life will never be the same.

Running With Purpose

Running with purpose was my place to begin living life to the full again. At the time, I had no idea that this whole purpose-filled life was a possibility.

When you’ve been beat down by bad choices, and further digging a hole because you’re depressed because of bad choices, you end up as an overweight and out-of-shape 46-year-old man.

The fact of the matter, though, is that at this point, I could have stayed being beaten down, or I could have chosen to be better and live better.

This whole running thing was new to me. I didn’t have a measuring stick to decide if I was doing it the right way.

As I headed out that morning on my first run with purpose, I thought of a quote from Senator John F. Kennedy in 1960.

“Effort and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.” JFK followed that with a quote from Socrates, “If a man does not know to what port he is sailing, no wind is favorable.”

As I bounced off toward the lake thirteen years ago, I began to ponder the purpose and what my purpose in life was in this next season.

I considered losing weight as a purpose. After all, I needed to drop about sixty pounds to get back into a healthy area.

That didn’t seem deep enough to overcome those mornings where my bed would be far more comfortable than bouncing out miles.

Every morning I would run and think about my purpose.

On one of those early morning before-the-sun-comes-up runs, I began to think about why I signed up for a marathon. It wasn’t because I dreamed of running a marathon that I signed up.

It was because I had been thinking about Jeffrey and his transition to civilian life with a missing appendage. I remember when we first got to know Jeffrey when he was two years old and filled with energy.

As I pondered ways to help Jeffrey make this huge adjustment, I found something really curious.

The more I thought about him and ways to help him, the less I thought about my less-than-stellar exit from the mission field and the amount of weight I had gained as I self-medicated my depression and anxiety with copious amounts of wine.

The really strange thing about seeing purpose birthed in me is that it became less of a struggle to step on the scale weekly and watch that ever-present number.

I looked forward to challenging myself to lose weight.

To make a long story short, I lost another fifteen pounds before my first marathon in October 2011.

Crossing the finish line and being greeted by Jeffrey, his mom, and his sister was one of the highlights of my life to that point. Knowing that running this marathon had brought Jeffrey to a place where he could get around his Marine brothers and sisters and cheer one of his squad mates across the line in his hand rower was deeper than I ever thought feels could get.

My purpose was born and it hasn’t stopped yet.

Living Life with Purpose

There are so many wonderfully written articles and books about purpose that a goofy ultra-runner doesn’t need to add a lot more words to what has already been masterfully written.

I highly recommend grabbing a copy of Running with Purpose, written by Jim Weber, the founder and CEO of Brooks Running.

Weber transformed a failing running business into a billion-dollar brand in the highly competitive global running market by tapping into a purpose beyond just making money.

Katrina Ruth, the founder of the Katrina Ruth Show, a highly successful online coaching business for entrepreneurs, wrote 7 Steps to Living Your Life with Purpose.

Her fourth tip is pure gold: Feel the fear and take the first step anyway.

That was the tip that got me to the finish line in my first 200-mile race. I was so scared toeing the line of that race and kept thinking I didn’t belong.

Then I stayed steady and finished in sixth place, helping a struggling runner to the finish line where he sprinted ahead of me when I stopped to give my forever girlfriend a huge hug of thanks and then walked the final half mile in with her, not caring that I didn’t finish on the men’s podium.

Staying on the “seven” theme, Jill Suttie wrote Seven Ways to Find Your Purpose for Greater Good Magazine.

In the beginning of the article Suttie writes, “Research suggests that purpose is tied to having better health, longevity, and even economic success. It feels good to have a sense of purpose, knowing that you are using your skills to help others in a way that matters to you.”

I love her sixth tip: Cultivate positive emotions like gratitude and awe.

I practiced this one when pacing a friend to his first 100-mile finish. We were past the 70-mile mark, and he was hurting. I made him lie down in the dirt and close his eyes, and then I told him to open them. As we lay in the dirt gazing at the bounty of stars in the sky, we were both filled with a sense of awe.

I am convinced that gratitude and awe got him across that finish line.

Simon Wheatcroft is a study of what happens when you refuse to let life’s circumstances get you down. He lives life with purpose and has changed blindness into a life of adapting technology to enable him to complete ultramarathons and many other amazing things.

An article that set me free from living in the past was a chance encounter with something I found on the C.S. Lewis Institute website.

As I read these words on Discovering God’s Purpose in Life, I realized that all my biblical learning and knowledge had, in a way, blinded me to the most important aspect of life.

My life is not just about my purpose on this earth, my life is entwined with my purpose in the world to come where sin and fallenness will not entangle us.

Keeping my eye on that goal, I know there are many more running adventures to come. I also know that there are many more stories to come as I allow my purpose to encourage others to do great things to become intertwined with a greater purpose in all of life.

If you’ve made it this far in this short article on my first run with purpose thirteen years ago, then know that there is a purpose for you in this life.

I encourage you to find your purpose both on this weird orb we call Earth and, even more importantly, in the world that is to come.