Pain vs God

During my last run, which was yesterday morning, I was reminded of something very fundamental in running and in life.

 This was what happened: Before setting off from home, I planned my route using the www.MapMyRun.com website. I started off at a slower pace to warm up, which can be between 6-12mins depending on the weather conditions (during winter it could take up to 20mins) and usually during my warm up periods I would feel my entire body 'telling me' not to run. For example, my arms will feel stiff and can't seem to swing in a natural way; my nose and my throat suddenly feels choked and I go into fits of coughs; my legs start to ache and my calves feel a bit tight. Anyway, all these would go away once I am warmed up and I will run fine. But this time, for some reason I felt some pain in my left heel even after 20mins and this was not normal. I tried to ignore it and hoped that it would go away but it was still there after 10mins. I got a bit worried thinking if I might have pushed myself too hard the past few days and gotten an injury. That would be the last thing I need - an injury. I prayed in my mind: God please make this pain go away. Within about 5-10mins, I realised that the pain was gone and I finished the rest of the run in a breeze! I would love to say that it was a miracle but there is a logical explanation to this. It was after the pain had went away, that I realised the pain in my heel was caused by me looking down during the first 35mins of my run instead of looking ahead where I was running. When I say I was looking down, it's more like I was looking 1m ahead of me; and because of the frequent pangs, I would take glances at my feet and try to rationalise how the pain came about. Obviously the looking and rationalising was not working well.

 Looking down gives poor form when running. My upper body would tend to be slouching when I look down, this causes my lungs to become compressed and I take in less oxygen; because I was not looking straight ahead, my feet position on the ground may have deviated from the straight line and possibly causing poor landing and therefore the pain; my shoulders become tensed and raised up which becomes less efficient, etc. There's probably more but these are a few I can think of.

 So looking ahead when running takes away all that. My body would be upright, shoulders relaxed and feet aligned. Looking straight ahead works for many other sports as well, including cycling and kayaking.

 Then I was reminded that in life, when we are faced with a problem or a 'pain', we can keep focusing on the 'pain' but thinking about it would never make it go away. In fact it could make matters worse. What we really need to do is to focus on Jesus who is the author and perfecter of our faith; He has come and showed us what it means to live; and as we focus on Him and His promises, the 'pain' will just fade away.

 Hebrews 12:1-2 (NIV) Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

So in the end, the final score - God: 1, Pain: 0.