Running From The Devil

Not to be confused with Running with the Devil, which is an intriguing marathon, Running from the Devil is an intriguing book that I just finished tonight. I was one of the lucky winners of a recent Runners' Lounge Free Stuff Giveaway, and received a copy of this book by author and runner Jamie Freveletti.

Running from the Devil is a novel about Emma Caldridge, a chemist and ultra-marathoner, and passenger on flight 689 headed for Bogota, Columbia. The plane is high-jacked and crashes in the jungle where a group of guerrillas are waiting for them. What do they want, and why are they so intent on capturing Emma, and who is really behind it all, are just some of the thrilling story lines in this book.

The book arrived in the mail last week, and I started flipping through it, and started reading the first page while my wife was getting dinner ready, just to get a feel for it, and I couldn't put it down. It kept me up late a couple nights turning the pages and reeling me in more and more. It's not so much about running, (ok, it's not at all about running), but it was fun to read a story with a hero/heroine I can relate to, as she relies on her physical fitness and endurance to survive in the jungle, all the while being hunted by the "devil."

It's a great read. I'd definitely recommend it. Although, I wonder if there will be a sequel as a few questions were left unanswered at the end.

"Pre"

I guess I'm sort of on a running book kick right now. I've been reading Pre: The Story of America's Greatest Running Legend, Steve Prefontaine by Tom Jordan, and just finished last night. Like many runners, Steve Prefontaine has been a hero of mine ever since I first learned anything about him. I finally picked up this book about him at the library a couple weeks ago.

I enjoyed reading the book and learning more about this incredible athlete. His ups and downs, his triumphs and disappointments. The author had interviewed many of Pre's friends, acquaintances, and competitors. Much of the book is taken directly from those interviews to provide a unique description of his life and career.

Many people viewed him as cocky and arrogant, but those who knew him described him as very sincere, down to earth, and at times, even lacking confidence. He was a fierce competitor from his high school days, to the Olympics and college, to his last race in 1975.

Although a good book, I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as another book I recently read. It was informative and interesting to read the words of those who knew Pre, but it lacked the excitement I was expecting. If you want to learn more about Pre, this is a great book, but if you're looking for more entertainment, I'd check out the film Without Limits.

Running talk at church

I think a lot of you already know that I'm a member of the LDS church. For those who are not familiar with this church, we do not have any paid preachers or anything like that. Instead, for every Sunday meeting two or three members of the congregation are asked to prepare a talk beforehand to share with the rest of the ward. Yesterday, Lani and I had a turn to share our thoughts. I figured that since a major part of my talk was about part of my running experience, I'd share it with you. It's kind of long, but I think some of us may be able to relate in one way or another.

We were asked to base our remarks on Matthew 6:24, which says:

"No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon."

Mammon derives from an Aramaic word for "riches," but I think this could also be translated to worldly possessions and things that often come with them, such as pride, power and prestige. A prophet from the Book of Mormon, named Moroni, describes the effects wealth and pride had on his people:

"... Ye do walk in the pride of your hearts; and there are none save a few only who do not lift themselves up in the pride of their hearts, unto the wearing of very fine apparel... For behold, ye do love money, and your substance, and your fine apparel, and the adorning of your churches, more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted... Ye adorn yourselves with that which hath no life, and yet suffer the hungry, and the needy, and the naked, and the sick and the afflicted to pass by you, and notice them not." (Mormon 8:36-37,38)

God has placed such importance on serving him that he made it his first commandment:

Thou shalt have no other gods before me... Thou shalt not bow down thyself to [graven images], nor serve them..." (Exodus 20:3,5)

We may not overtly worship idols or graven images as many did in Old Testament times, but we can often let things take priority over worshiping and serving God and building his kingdom. Other types of gods include riches, material possessions such as cars, homes, and clothing. There are also intangible things like degrees and titles, or popularity or the "perfect body." Addictions, not just to drugs but to less harmful things like the internet, video games, or sports.

Obviously running is an important part in my life. It wasn't so long ago that it may have held too much importance. I could get up at 4:30 in the morning on a Saturday to go for a run, but I had a hard time getting myself up at 6:30 to read my scriptures before work. I could feel myself drifting farther from God. It was harder to feel his spirit. Admittedly, running had become a god for me. I was serving mammon by following my own self-interests.

When we moved to Arizona last summer, we were coming to a new job with a pretty nice salary, but when I got my first paycheck, we realized that things weren't going to be as comfortable as we thought. It was actually going to be really tight. Through many prayers we received the assurance that God would take care of us if we did our part. We felt our job was to reach out and befriend our neighbors. We were real excited to do this, and we knew that if we did, God would take care of us and provide a way for our temporal need to be met. I knew I needed to change some things about myself and rearrange my priorities in order to be worthy of the promised blessings.

One Sunday morning as I was reading in the book used for the lessons in one of our church meetings, I read the lesson for that afternoon, entitled "Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me." Things started jumping out at me like: "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Matthew 6:21), and "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33), "these things" referring to food, clothing and basic temporal needs. It wasn't long before I realized what running had become. I knew where my heart was, and I knew I needed to change my priorities, and that if I did so, God would bless me and my family for it. That morning, I made the commitment to myself and to God that I would read my scriptures every day before I went running.

I can tell you that blessings have followed. Personally, I feel more in tune with the spirit of God and much closer to him, and that I am better living up to what he expects of me. We have been able to spend time with our neighbors and get to know them. We have also been tremendously blessed financially. We received checks at very unexpected times (allowing us to make our trip for the Boston Marathon), and I was able to get a very nice raise.

I have truly seen Gods blessings in my life. He has kept his promises. I know I am far from perfect, and that reading in the scriptures every day doesn't make me more righteous than anyone else, but I do feel that it has made a difference in my life.

The Perfect Mile

Knowing that I am training for a sub-5-minute mile, Nitmos recommended that I read The Perfect Mile: Three Athletes, One Goal, and Less Than Four Minutes to Achieve It by Neal Bascomb. I picked it up at the library last Friday, and devoured it. I loved it so much, I had to write about it. Don't worry, no spoilers.

The book details the history of three remarkable runners, all with the same goal of being the first to break the 4-minute barrier for the mile. The American Wes Santee, the Australian John Landy, and the Englishman Roger Bannister all set out to reach this goal that many believed impossible.

The story begins with the athletes qualifying for the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. Each athlete faced challenges and struggles at and prior to the Games, which in turn prompted their decision to be the first to break the barrier. Over the course of the next two years, each would train relentlessly and make several attempts at breaking the barrier. But only one could be the first. And that long-anticipated day finally came in the spring of 1954.

As I am training for a similar barrier, I was intrigued and the descriptions of their training. Santee trained with his University of Kansas track team, Landy trained through the night in Australia, and Bannister juggled his training with medical school. Each showed great promise and repeatedly demonstrated that they had the potential to reach their goal. Reading about how they trained and broke through mental barriers en route to the time barrier gave me new ideas for my own training.

This book gripped me for many reasons. 1) I ran track in high school, and I can remember very well the anticipation and adrenaline of my races. I was able to put myself on the track beside them and re-experience that rush of adrenaline with each athlete's races, aided by the eloquent writing of the author. 2) I am training for my own mile race next month. These stories will stick with me and run through my mind as I train for and run that race. 3) I am currently striving to break my own barrier of 5 minutes. Although I would only be about 3 quarters of the way through the mile by the time they finished, I feel like I can relate to their experiences and attempts. I understand how it feels to have setbacks, and I know the excitement that comes with progress. I hope I can experience the elation of breaking my barrier as well.

The ELM Tree

In preparation for my upcoming coaching experience, I have started reading The Double-Goal Coach by Jim Thompson, the founder of the Positive Coaching Alliance. As I read, I hope to add frequent posts about things from the book that I feel are significant. My first post is about the ELM Tree.

The Positive Coaching Alliance has started an effort to help coaches and teams move away from the "win-at-all-costs" or scoreboard approach to youth sports to more of a mastery and life skills approach. In Chapter 2, Thompson attempts to redefine what a Winner is. He explains that inherent in the scoreboard approach are three main focuses: the results, comparisons with others, and avoiding mistakes. When we focus on the results of the game, all that matters is who has the most points. It doesn't matter if you play poorly, as long as you win. Comparisons to the other team are easily made. We scored more points, we must be better. Following the scoreboard approach necessitates avoiding mistakes because mistakes "lead to bad results on the scoreboard" (pg. 22).

By contrast, the ELM Tree of Mastery focuses on Effort, Learning and improvement, and the way we respond to Mistakes. Sure it is great to win, but here putting forth your best effort is more important. Every time we go out and play (or run), we are learning and improving, getting better than we were before. This has always been my philosophy to running. I don't compare myself with others, I want to improve on my own race times. The third part of the ELM Tree is concerned with how we respond to making mistakes. Mistakes are not something to be feared. We learn through making mistakes. They provide opportunities for us to grow and improve. This, I feel, is especially important in sports.

I hope I can use the ELM Tree to help my kids be the best they can be and feel good about what they are doing, whether it be running or anything in life.