Life is like running a marathon. There will be others racing around you, but the real competition is with yourself and the clock. You push as hard as you can to get there as fast as you can. If you plan your life with the mentality of Dathan Ritzenhein, instead of Usain Bolt, then the clock is not so much a threat but a tool. Because it’s not how fast you fly out the gate that matters, but maintaining a “comfortably uncomfortable” pace.

A “comfortably uncomfortable” pace is one where you know you are pushing yourself as hard as you can afford if you want to make it to the end. You are not storing energy for the end, except maybe enough for a half mile sprint. Along the way you struggle to maintain that pace, while a thousand other facts, experiences, and concerns about life try to fly through your head. You do your best to stay focused and ignore the distractions in favor of your mission. With both your body and mind resisting the further in you get, and your muscles and brain struggling to stay lose and flexible you press on. You look out for the roots and lose rocks along the way, but not all of them can be avoided. Every so often you glance at the clock to see where you are in terms of where you think you should be. The freedom that comes with running a marathon is that you set your own pace--as soon as you qualify for the level of race you wish to see yourself in.

Sometimes we don’t start ourselves off at the pace we want, either we don’t start out as fast as we know we are capable of or someone elbows us in the first 200 meters. We may slow down to catch our breath and then push ourselves a little harder to get back to the desired pace. Injuries can occur too, but through it all we have to figure out how to problem solve and keep our eyes on the prize. However, it’s the competitive spirit that can mess u up the most. After all, it is the fastest runner who wins.

This is where the problems arise. When your speed and what your body can do is no longer your top priority a game of cat and mouse can make you run out of steam. You forget your graceful and sure pace for an epic scramble to beat the leader, which can push you even farther back than you started. Luckily, a race isn’t over until the finish line, and you do eventually hit a point where you find your stride and things start to be all familiar mechanics. Be careful not to be lulled by the comfort of robotics, it’s still good to test what is in the tank if you don’t want to be at the back of the pac--or just maybe you do.

We glorify the people who race, as we praise the people who conduct their live at race pace. We think that if we move through life as the most graceful, fluid, ambitious, and determined person this will lead us to the front of the pack. But running faster also puts us at higher risk, especially of outrunning ourselves. There are different levels of races, make sure you pick the marathon speed that is right for you, if you have a choice, otherwise you might not like what position in the pack you earn. The truth is you don’t have to race through life, you can maintain a slow pace, or you can live your life as a leisurely stroll. We have to expand our acceptance and excitement for all walks of life. No matter what the speed.