Miracles Are Always On The Table (1 of 2)
'Tis the season for a reprint of this blog, especially as we look into 2024.
More on creating your own miracle next week.
“I never took miracles off the table.”
One of my fabulous clients recently said this in a session and it took my breath away.
Because it means miracles are always on the table, unless you take them off.
You can be struggling through the worst low imaginable…and still finish.
Your shoe can fall apart 30 miles into a 100…and still finish.
You can break a bone…and still finish.
You can take a wrong turn that costs you over an hour…and still finish.
You can have five seconds on final cutoff…and still finish.
I’ve seen (or had) every single one of these happen, some more than once.
To make miracles happen, you need to do two things.
First, don’t take them off the table - believe miracles are possible.
That means not giving up. Simply committing to believe miracles are possible - for everyone including you.
Understanding that it has nothing to do with you - possibility is a law of the universe, like gravity.
And you don’t have to know how a miracle will happen - just that it can.
When that shoe falls apart with 70 miles still to go, you’re sure you can finish. You just need to figure it out. I did this at Ozark Trail 100 - made do with duct tape that kept coming off until I finally found a pair of trail shoes in my size someone was willing to let me borrow.
When you take that wrong turn that ends up costing you a demoralizing hour and a half, you keep going as hard as you can because you’re still in the race and a finish is possible. My friend John Taylor did this at Double Top 100 and finished under cutoff.
Second, take action to make them possible.
Just because miracles are on the table doesn’t mean they’ll magically occur with no effort on your part.
Set up the conditions for them to happen.
Do everything you know to get out of that low. And give yourself the time to do it while you keep moving forward. I and most experienced ultrarunners have done this more than once.
Find a way to work with or around the broken bone. I broke my big toe on a rock in the first five miles of Bigfoot 200 and found a way to run that didn’t bother it.
When you have seconds left on the clock, give it everything you’ve got and surprise yourself with more. I’ve watched many runners over the years at Massanutten 100 come out of the woods into the finish meadow, sprinting with everything they’ve got left as the clock ticks down, and cross the line with sometimes single-digit seconds to spare. It’s truly inspiring.
If you want a miracle, have faith it’s possible for you, even if you don’t see how at the moment.
And do what it takes to make it real.
If you’re going to have enough faith to do something impossible like run an ultra, you might as well have faith that miracles are always on the table.
