We’ve all heard the saying “life is a marathon not a sprint.”  In fact that statement has probably become a bit of a cliché to many of us.  It is interesting how the power of language seeps or leaks and seemingly loses something over time and use (and perhaps misuse.)  Cliché or not, it is an apt metaphor.

In 117 days I will undertake the formidable foe that is the Chicago Marathon – and at some point today my training begins.  I had always thought of this metaphor in terms of the race, but I think that I’ve missed it.  I’m coming to realize that the true test (and true lesson) is in the training.

For most of us, life isn’t always a big event covered by the news, bolstered by the camaraderie of our 40,000 fellow participants and the pomp and circumstance of race day – at least for me it isn’t.  Over the next weeks and months there will be approximately 80 training runs and workouts that will make or break my ability to complete the race.  These workouts will be in the flow of otherwise normal days, unremarkable even.  Some of these will have the benefit of the company of other people while some will be a lonely solitary endeavor.  That sounds a little more like life doesn’t it?

So what?  Well, day 1 of 117 has me realizing the need for these types of metaphors as teachers and guides in my life.  I’m expecting to learn a lot about myself in the coming weeks and committing to make it more than a race.  I imagine there are some things I will learn about myself that I will not like – I am also hopeful that I will grow and be changed for the positive.  I might also fail miserably – this also sounds like the stuff of life doesn’t it?

Not everyone can or should run a marathon (the jury is still out on my capacity), and quite frankly athletic metaphors are often over used and a bit distant; but there is something in us that needs a picture or symbol to explain who we are and who we are becoming.  It is almost as if this external task, story, or piece of art describes the self in a way that we just don’t have access to without the power of metaphor.

Can you point to metaphors in your own life that are part of your process of becoming?  What does it teach you?  What are some things you might engage that would help better explain who you are and what you are becoming?  I encourage you to give it a shot, what’s the worst that could happen?