This is the first week Alycia and I are living with my in-laws. We moved from Rancho Cucamonga to Yucaipa. Rancho is filled with every chain restaurant known to humanity, the picture perfect suburb. Yucaipa is a little more rural, with horse paths and more mom and pop shops. I love Rancho and hope to be back there soon, but for this season I’m happy to be in Yucaipa.
Except for the hills. So many hills.
At our apartment complex we had a gym with some treadmills, ellipticals and weight lifting equipment. Since moving out, I no longer have access to that gym. I’m not going to pay for a gym membership so that only leaves one option for exercise: running outside.
I’ve never been a big fan of running; I always dreaded the mile in PE. However, if you’ve been listening to The Christian Nerd Podcast, you know that Ron and I are in a weight loss competition. Whoever loses has to buy Star Wars: Battlefront for the winner. I was in the lead through the first few weeks but my trip to Hawaii practically erased all of my progress and now I’m quickly falling behind Ron. As much as I hate it, the only way I’m going to win and get healthy is by running outside.
So outside I have been running.
I actually ran outside a few times last week when we were still in our apartment. The terrain around our apartment was relatively flat; I actually enjoyed running there. Yucaipa, though, is nothing but hills. In fact, our house is literally at the top of a hill, so my run always ends going uphill.
Ron has shared that he tries to focus on God while he’s running and tries to find a spiritual element in his exercise. I tried doing that yesterday and this is what I came up with:
Hills suck.
As I was running up a hill, gasping for breath and seriously contemplating a gym membership, all I could think is that hills suck. I didn’t find encouragement in pressing on to win the prize for which I’d been called. I didn’t even think that I was like Paul’s athlete, beating my body into submission. All I could think about was how much hills suck.
Sometimes, though, that’s how life is. In spite of God’s goodness, in spite of his great love for us, sometimes things just suck. Sometimes we just have to suck it up, put our heads down and keep going uphill. Because of God’s goodness and his great love, we can trust that he’ll be with us no matter how long we’re on that hill. We can also trust that we’ll eventually reach the hill’s crest and things will suck less.
God won’t leave us on our hills like Sisyphus, eternally struggling to make it to the top. We’ll eventually make it to the top because hills may suck but God does not.
What helps you make it up hills?
Lmao “Hills suck”. Those hills are going to get you Star Wars Battlefront, if you weren’t huffing an puffing at the gym you weren’t working hard enough. When I was in football I used to hate the hill they used to make us run and do drills on but that hill made me an ass kicking machine so much so that I had to leave because I was hurting too many people = (. I felt guilty, anywho. You may not like the hills but your video game is in those hills. I’m sure you know by now God puts hills/obstacles/trials to help strengthen us. In saying all this what gets me to the top of the hill is that along the way God is making me an ass kicking machine with ever hill I get to the top of. = ) Keep running brother, awesome Paul reference = ).
Conquering the hills of life: prayer, support, and surrender. When confronted with a hill I first pray for God’s guidance and–together with my efforts–climb the hill. If the hill is steeper and longer than I am prepared for its time for backup. First line of support is my wife of 32 years. I have found that God quite often speaks to me through her. She is effortlessly faithful to God and I believe that is why He entrusts her with His wisdom. Also available is a second line of support from my CBC (Community Baptist Church) small group friends and prayer warriors who are always a text or phone call away. Lastly, for those Mt. Whitney size hills, I surrender those to God, have faith He will bring me to the summit, and don’t retake ownership of what I have surrendered.
Now for my thoughts on running those hills. The Etiwanda High School area is home for me in Rancho Cucamonga. My Sunday mourning runs are between 12 and 14 miles. The best advice I can give to motivate you through those hilly runs comes from an iPod! Start out running flat or down hill listening to “Redeemed” by Big Daddy Weave . This will help put the event in perspective. The biggest hill I encounter starts at S Highland Ave turning North on Citrus Ave and running uphill for slightly more than 2 miles to the power line trail just below the 15 freeway. Dial up the right song at the right time, play it loud, and the pain seems manageable. For the last half mile of a hill climb (about 4 minutes from the top) it’s all about “Weather Man” by Dead Sara . The ominous drone of the bass and the intrepidly urgent voice of Emily Armstrong in your ears pushes you up the hill. I find my cadence keeping time with the tempo of this song. It’s hard to tell if your heart rate increase is from the elevation gain or the Indy Punk Rock chords pulsing through your buds. Then, once at the summit, it’s all about reflecting on the just won battle and Who ultimately got you their. For this I rely on Jeremy Riddle’s “Sweetly Broken” . With a little practice it becomes automatic to shuffle through a play list and queue the right song at the appropriate moment.
Persevere in your weight loss endeavor.