The Head Turn

By the real time, I missed writing on November 2; luckily, however, it's the night we set our clocks back and so I have 42 more minutes! ;)

I write about running an excessive amount, especially for someone who never has and never will do it. What can I say? There are so many life parallels to running.

My high schoolers ran their last race of the season two weeks ago. It was regionals, and it was a pretty huge race.

I was standing at the finish of the boys race, waiting on my guy to come across, when I looked up and saw a real race to the line heading toward me. I LOVE those exciting finishes when two or more runners just race it out to the last possible second, even when they are racing for like 54th and 55th place.

Anyway, there were three boys headed toward me with the one in the middle just a stride out ahead of the other two. As they drew closer, the one in the middle and the one on the right left the fellow on the left. Now we were down to two, and these two were POUNDING it out toward the finish.

I was probably ten or twelve paces ahead of the line and, just as they got almost even with me, the leader glanced to his right. He didn't see his competitor because he was at least a stride or two ahead of him still, but he no doubt sensed him there, because he then turned his head completely to the right to see where his opponent was.

Want to guess what happened next? Yep, just about 6 paces before the finish line, the other kid pulled up and passed the leader, maintaining his lead to finish the race ahead of the kid who was running out front of that pack of three when I first noticed them.

The time the original leader lost in that head turn completely negated the effort he had put in to stay ahead the entire race to the line. It was over for him the moment he turned his head to assess his position on those running with him.

How often is that us in the race of this life? How much time and effort and energy do I lose, just throw away, because I'm too busy comparing where I am to those around me instead of just running my race? I can answer that... way too much.

It's hard to stay focused on our own races (and our own walks) when we are distracted by everyone around us who seems to be gaining on us or who has long since passed us. I spend a lot of my time feeling like I'm behind where I should be, like I'm getting lapped by those who are accomplishing all the things I thought I would have by now. And in looking around me, I'm using valuable time and energy and resources that could instead be spent on pushing myself along.

My race is not dependent on theirs. My position doesn't have anything to do with theirs. My pace is my own, and I'm striving to be the best ME I can be, not the best I can be when compared to everyone else. May I, and may YOU, always remember that the head turn is where we lose the race.