Yesterday each of us proudly exposed their medals. In the restaurants, in the streets. Those who ran understand it very well; and let those who didn’t – at least see them 🙂 A medal that we put in a rucksack today will be a reminder and motivation tomorrow.
We’ll be going back soon. This was the second time I’d visited Florence bacuse of the marathon and I must say that I know this city quite well from the perspective of 42,195 km (of course, multiplied by 2). And since I went then only because of the marathon, I took the last plane to Florence and the first plane after the race. There was not time to do any sightseeing. Maybe I’ll do it next time I run the marathon?
Afterwards – looong waiting time for a change in Frankfurt and a late return home. After the last marathon, since that was not yet the end of the season, I heard the following advice: ‘This week’s going to be a rest. Running only 3 times 12-14 km’. That’s how marathon runners take their rest. But now it’s the end of the season and we can laze around a bit. Winter is the time to get in shape. I don’t really have better running experiences than running on fresh snow in the forest. Of course it’s harder but instead the running strength grows. And we’re getting prepared for the marathon in the spring because there is still weakness that we have to overcome, and because we have to ask more of ourselves, because… Everyone fills in something for themselves.
See you on the running tracks. See you in the spring (or later) somewhere at the marathon.
Greetings for everyone
Fr Jay
This is His day, His holy day, glory be to Him. That is how I reacted to the best wishes of perople who greeted the running priest. Viva Christo Re!
The marathon is completed, and this with the result of my life. I do not know yet precisely, what the time was because just before the start my watch let me down and refused to operate. I know that the gross result was 4:14. The tail of the marathon where I found my proper place had to wait for a while before the time was measured.
The strategy was as follows: I start with those who ran 4:30 and than after a while I leave them and run at my own pace. Then I catch those who aim at 4:15 and I run to the finishing line. That’s what I did. I caught them before the half-way point and since I enjoyed running, I went on going at my own pace. The idea was that if I hit the wall, I could always come back to them. And I was right. Though I finished before them, I owe it to their pace makers that in spite of weakness I worked myself up and kept the pace.
I understand now St. Paul even better when he writes that he’d finished the race and kept the faith. Because at the merathon it is often like that that – at the end the only thing that’s left is faith and motivation. I offered my run in this marathon especially for the families – for all the communities, although particularly for the newest ones, and for all the families I work with – especially those who experience the greatest difficulties. Maybe that’s why it was so hard in the final part of the race.
Marathon is something special. This is a big challenge, an opportunity to face up to a real weakness when all that’s left is the will to fight while the body says “Enough”. On many, exceptionally many occasions I saw other runners who gave up or, worse still, were taken by ambulances. This shows that it is s true challenge. We know very well what’s happened with our runner at the half-marathon on the Uznam Island. I am proud of him because he didn;t give up and he keeps on training.
Next year we’ll fight again. And now we’re going to celebrate.
Fr Jay
I’ve received the start number. After a short night… first by train to Florence, then a run to Andrzej and together to the place where the marathon is going to start tomorrow. I’ll run with a Friend who encouraged me to take part in the marathon – and took me to the marathon in Florence two years ago. It was my first one and my first result: 4:34:19. In September I ran from ÅšwinoujÅ›cie, Poland, to Wolgast, Germany: 4:24:12. this time maybe itill be 4:14? Today I can hardly believe it. It’s been the day of a crisis, but also of a great excitement.
It was nice to receive so much of a positive feedback from other marathon runners, that “it’s great that a priest also runs”. Some of them ensured they would let their parish priests know about it – that they could do it, too. Maybe one day we’ll organize a marathon for priests…
Anyway, the marathon is just about to begin. At 9:00 p.m. European time. Please, bear in mind the prayer-support-for-Father-Jay emergency till 13:30 at least.
I’ll let you know as soon as I’ve made it.
See you then,
Fr Jay
Today I’m flying to Florence. I’ll have to change planes once. It’s easy to say who’s flying to the marathon. Those people are wearing sports outfit, worn-out running shoes and their bodies point to some sort of regular physical activity. We recognize each other quite easily at the airport. Sometimes nodding your head is eanough (we’re from the same “branch,” so words are useless), sometimes you hear a distinct “good luck”.
Each of us hopes to win. To win your life record, to win your weakness, to run using your head, keep the strategy and… experience that incredible joy at the finish line – the reward for all the toil.
And the fever I’ve mentioned? As usual I start feeling pain in all parts of my body and what dawns on me is actally the fear of the distance (42.195 km!!!). So I’m asking myself: will i make it? the question returns in all shapes and forms. Time will tell. The day after tomorrow.
Your Guardian Angels would me more than welcome on the way. Because all those marathons of mine – are offered for you, Dear Families, so that you can make it till the end, despite the pain, despite the questions if its worth taking the toil… And when your marriage turns 42 years and 195 days, I’ll run another marathon. Because we need you. We need your perseverance over the years and your smile as our paths cross on the running routes – as without you, the world will go astray.
See you at the finish. You can view this one at www.firenzemarathon.it My start number is 9755.
Fr Jay
two weeks before the marathon – covers the distance of 30 kilometers. Looong way. And you run on the asphalt, because the Firenze Marathon takes place on asphalt streets and pavements. Time to get your organism ready for what’s ahead of you. This is the real solitude of a long-distance runner. You pass by the cars, people at the bus stops, the surveyors measuring something, an ambulance rushing down the street with the siren on… You run among the manifestations of ordinary life. Sometimes a gesture of human kindness and support. Rather seldom (it’s not a running route, where you meet the same people like you).
The marathon itself will be full of people running in front of you, behind you and next to you. Marathon is a celebration, joy, emotions – the end of so many weeks of training, the reward for that toil.
During our Programs we ask the participants to do homework tasks. Something to do every day – in line with the Program’s idea. In order to become a “better me”, bearing in mind him/her.
What I experience today as the loneliness of a long-distance runner is only the trainig. It is for some purpose. What’s ahead is the actual run. “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7). My marriage, my life, my eternity… It was worth the effort…
Fr Jay
because if your friends live a bit further, you can always make a running trip instead of using your car. In a real downpour of rain I got soaked to the skin, so my visit might have been a bit troublesome for my Hosts, who had to do something with all the water dripping down from me. 😉
In order to find their place, I needed to choose the right street joining the main road – and it took some of my running time. It turned out that the names of the streets hadn’t been placed at the street entries, but often on a house standing dozens of meters further. So I had to run into each of the adjacent streets to see if it was the right one.
That’s how it goes in our lives: how often do we eneter the streets which are no good and we have to get back immediately. I gave names to the streets I want to walk along: Gentleness, Respect, Being a Gift...
If can’t find one of those names on the path that I take, I have to make a hasty escape, I must get back to myself quickly becasue… that is not my path.
Fr Jay
– read the inscription on the T-shirt of the Ordinary Bishop of the diocese I’m in right now (has anybody guessed where?). He has completed 18 marathons, and the members of his diocese may meet him each day on the running trails. Today he was running in the comapany of one seminarist and one priest from Poland 😉 . 7 miles.
So the three of us had this convesration about running, faith, and – beyond the third mile, when the seminarist left us – also about faith, challenges, prayer while running and about the necessary time of solitude.
The runners have a world of their own, and the running priests – are a separate subgroup. You can take God on the trails of your city and enfold the place in your prayer.
Yesterday I visited the Museum of Abraham Lincoln, where you can have some glimpse of the President’s life (a lookalike impersonates him each Friday and Saturday of the summer). And today I had the opportunity to get to know the city from its Bishop. History instructs. Illustrations lead. Historia docet, exempla trahunt. Each meeting may bring something valuable to our life.
With warmest memory of All of You,
Fr. Jay from…?
Someone wise made this remark that marathons are terrible – too far and too long but… there’s nothing better than training for a marathon. And this is where that major difference comes to the fore. Stop running… start training. When you take to doing something, use your head. Training teaches you how to be systematic, persistent and responsible; it emphasizes the need for both: effort and taking a rest (which is also part of training). When you take such challenge as training for a marathon – you have a great opportunity to practice self-mastery.
Many people I met here had taken part in a marathon, semi-marathon or 10-kilometer race. I meet so many people on running or bike trails. They differ by age and expertise; you can also see married couples and parents with their kids.
And you can really envy the excellent running/bicycle trails they’ve got here. Near housing estates or along streams, parallel to roads connecting towns (at a reasonable distance, of course). Those trails – for runners and cyclists only, as no motor vehicels are allowed – are well-marked with all sorts of signs (e.g. warnings of the obstacles). I especially liked the last trail. It goes along an old railway embankment, so it’s perfectly straight, even, with an excellent surface – and it’s miles long. I’ve checked only 15 kilometers of that trail and there was no end to it. Definitely, when you have such great facilities, you will be encouraged to do something to keep you fit.
But when you train for a marathon, it doesn’t matter what the conditions are. What matters is that yesterday was a day of taking a rest, and today… it’s time to run.
Fr Jay
