Reflections of a Running Reverend

At the beginning of a race, emotions and adrenaline levels run high. There is both excitement and anxiety. The heart is pumping like crazy and the nerves are on edge. At the starting line, I usually position myself behind the group of the race leaders- those who are in it to win. While I am not, by any means, in it to win, I usually have a time goal I am shooting for and so I want to position myself strategically. To be in between the race leaders and the leisure runners enables me to be pulled forward by the former group and not be slowed down by the latter. In one of the races I did last year, however, I found myself in the lead pack at the starting line. Before I could move back a couple of rows, the race director started the count down... "3, 2, 1, Go!" I had no choice but to run with the lead pack for a while. And for a while, I was able to keep up. I let myself be swept-up in the energy and excitement of that first wave of runners. It was definitely a much faste

" Running is controlled falling. " said Scott Jurek, world renowned vegan ultra runner, in his best-selling book, Eat and Run . What he meant by this is that the most efficient technique in running is to lean forward and let gravity work to your advantage. It's letting yourself fall forward without falling to the ground and controlling the force created by your weight and gravity to propel you on. And while it is controlled, there is a level of abandon, a level of trust in the downward force that makes for a more energy efficient run. There's an illustration and demo videos that explain this technique on the altrarunning website . In Star Wars lingo, it's allowing "the force to be with you" and move you forward. Last Sunday, we celebrated the Baptism of our Lord. As we remembered our own baptism, we were reminded of water, which is the primary symbol used in the sacrament. The baptismal ritual reminds us that water symbolizes "the cleansing of