A Catholic priest and a Presbyterian
minister walked into a restaurant and sat down to celebrate the minister’s 40th
birthday. In the course of their dinner, the priest challenged his friend to
run the Marine Corps Marathon.
Sounds like a joke, doesn’t it? That’s
what the Presbyterian minister thought.
But the priest wasn’t kidding.
Problem was, the minister had no experience as a runner, and the prospect of
26.2 miles was daunting. But he knew he needed a midlife challenge as he
entered his 40s. Since the priest had already run several marathons, he gave
his friend some tips and turned him loose.
The first time he hit the road, the
minister ran for three minutes and had to stop, gasping for breath. But after
walking for seven minutes, he was able to run for another three, and then he
walked another seven and ran three. Over several weeks, his running increased
and his walking decreased until he could run for an hour. And then he ran two
hours.
“If you can run two hours, you can
run four hours,” the priest told him. “If you can run four hours, you can do a
marathon.”
He was right. Six months after
beginning his training, the minister finished the Marine Corps Marathon in four
hours and 12 minutes. He felt as if he’d been through boot camp, but his
exhausted elation at the finish line made the pain worthwhile.1
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