Injuries Getting You Down

This picture features a dejected runner between mile 24 and 25 during the Boston Marathon on Patriot's Day only five months ago. I know the spot because I can make out the CITGO sign in the distance which means you are close to home.

The picture does not indicate that this runner felt close to home.

As the story goes, this young man, Dennis, had a strained hamstring and from what I can tell walked off the course without a finishing time.

This morning he broke the world record in the Marathon running under two hours and three minutes for the first time in history.

If you are injured, do not give up. Great successes may be just over the next hilltop, no further than the CITGO sign off in the distance.

I came upon this hill and this sign about 30 months ago, also dejected, and have not wanted to touch the marathon since. Perhaps I could be more tenacious. Dennis, you give me hope.

Jager sets American record - in the 3,000 Meter Steeple and Reminds of Return to Eden

I am spending the day thinking of how great it is that we all return to Eden. It is a difficult return, tears drying out, and all the nations being reconciled to one another. It has been fraught with suffering these last 2,000 years, but someday the suffering will pass away.

I love seeing great Track & Field news to remind me of the return to Eden. Runners continue to amaze me with their achievements. This time it was in the 3,000 Meter Steeplechase. There is Evan Jager setting a new American record (8:04) in the Steeplechase and Jairus Birech breaks eight minutes for the first time all season by any runner. Somehow the fast running, hurdling, and wet shoes of steeplechase harriers reminds me that we will not suffer this life forever.


The Apoclaypse or Revelation, even sometimes known as Revelations, (but making it plural is false, but we always let it go, because it reminds us of some rural church we love), anyway, Revelation is a series of downers at times--Whore and the Beast, Fall of Babylon, Dragons, Bowls of God's Wrath, Dead Exiled for 1,000 years, 666. There is a lot of tough stuff in there. I avoided the entire book for about 15 years of my life. Seemed like it would only give me nightmares.

Then at the end, it speaks of a crystal clear river of life, no more tears, no more pain, leaves that symbolize healing, a curse lifted, and finally know more night as the path in the darkness will be illuminated by God's light.

You know that Birech and Jager suffered miserably all summer to get in shape for such great races. Tired recovery runs. Grueling speed workouts. Bumping some barriers that could have led to broken bones, even career ending injuries. And then in early September 2014 it all paid off and they raced fluidly, beautifully, and crossed the line with excellent results.

In a manner of speaking, they returned to Eden, back to the Garden and the Tree of Life where life is all balm. Are you going there? Are you willing to suffer to get there? Do you trust that the suffering now will be worth the peace then? When you see glimmers of the peace now, do you tell others about it?

Entering An Appropriate Conversation--Church Imaginings

My mind is all a flutter.

I want to talk about Ferguson, Missouri and Mike Brown and Darren Wilson but any electronic conversation seems petty and misunderstood in the wake of what has happened. I spoke on it at worship yesterday and that will have to suffice. If I have anything hopeful to say or offer, it’s a video of a heavenly banquet. I strongly recommend that you watch the whole movie, Places in the Heart, but this video clip is the hook. I have posted this clip before in other contexts and it might be a starting place for communities to imagine a non-hateful response to violence. This is all communities. No one gets off the hook.

I want to talk about Robin Williams. I am so sorry for any death, suffering, addiction and depression. Just when we think we have survived into our 60's and we are going to make it, we don’t. But none of us are going to make it, or better, all of us are going to make it. Don’t sensationalize or romanticize suffering. Just let this one sit and don’t say anything mean. People have died this week and you want to watch your words.

I want to talk and will talk (and write) about the future of church imagination around the world. Reading Viaduct Park followed us on Twitter this morning and it gave me all new hope for what the church can look like in a building-less imagination.  Take a look at this article on the re-configuring of 10 elevated parks around the world. In typical fashion we might imagine the end of these parks as places for exercise and homes for new vegetation, maybe even some new art. I am for all of those things. I like sweating, beautiful sculptures and the fine smell of blooming daffodils. In fact all of those things are part of what I would call the "end" for all of these new parks/trails. These re-constituted parks are long bodies of land that are God’s unfolding kingdom—the church. We can commission Christians and ordain pastors to gather at all of these spaces. With intention we can ask all of these cultivating Christian communities to make friends with all who use these spaces.

Right now I am imagining the commissioning of art work, maybe a great sculpture or some intentional graffiti/art work along the American Tobacco Trail in Durham. I want this art in the most “dangerous” places so that we could start walking and running tours to come out and see these great monuments. We need to go out into the streets and invite the people to come see what is along the trail. Our response to danger and threat cannot just be more emergency phone booths and patrolling. That's not a buy-in from the community or for the community though I am thankful for these additions. 

What is our God doing in dangerous places? Erecting monuments. It does not have to be a cross or a statue of Mother Mary. I am not trying to corner the market on beauty on behalf of churchy symbols. What about a statue honoring Blind Boy Fuller at mile two on the ATT? Not just a plaque, but I want to see him strumming the banjo like the picture in the new train station. How fitting that where actual trains really run, his image could take up space along an old abandoned railway. I would love to see a giant marble version of Thelonius Monk banging away on the keys with enough room for me to sit on the piano bench with him and dream of his music in my mind as the birds sing away the afternoon. I am certain that Monk harmonizes with the birds each afternoon in heaven and God takes a long listen from a slow rocking chair.

I am not ducking Ferguson or Robin Williams, I just don’t know what to add to already broken conversations. I cannot speak in ultimate "rights" and "wrongs" on matters of death, justice, vindication, retribution where vengeance, depression, suicide are concerned. I just don’t know. People are going to be mad whatever the findings of the investigations are, understandably. Our culture solves chaotic problems with weapons. Why isn't anyone angry about that?

More than a decade ago, I got so mad at the church and its' leaders when it did not speak prophetically and quickly after 9-11-01, but I just don't know what to say now that it is my time to speak. Silence is also a form of prophetic imagination. Sometimes it is just too soon. Still, I am thankful for all who speak out. Continue with courage.

But I do know this: a long city park, once a railroad, Is a church in the kingdom of the God whom I worship. We, the Tobacco Trail Church, have already been about this project going into year five. We are small in numbers, and Ginormous in God’s imagination for what we can show the world. Maybe we are city planners. I am starting to think our people could be consultants to cities all over the world. Give us your tired and your poor plots of land. Reconstitute these spaces using a beautiful mind. The process will be fraught with challenges, but stay at it. Cross neighborhood boundaries. Gather despite fear and humiliation. Let the old railroads tell decade-old stories and broken economic and racial stories. Even the railroads, with each tie pulled up and re-tread with asphalt or compact screening or gravel will tell the truth of who we have really been and who we can be going forward. 

Do not be afraid to fail as you gather for worship and prayer. Get to the trail early and often and help the community with the re-design of these trails. If your church plant does not work--so what? You tried. Effort counts a lot in the kingdom, not for salvation or grace, but for showing courage. Most stuff in the world fails on a first attempt. And if you worship outside and it doesn't work, you do not have a mortgage or a lease to contend with. You are light with burden. 

I promise you this; your cities leadership will not mind you gathering so long as others can freely use the space. They want you out there and so does God. Anybody want to plant an outdoor church in or near Ferguson, Missouri? I will bet my back yard there is an abandoned railroad within a stone's throw of where blood was shed. Might have to turn a couple swords to plowshares in order to churn up the earth and get the land leveled so you can lay down a picnic blanket or two.

What to Do on June 15, 2014. Make-A-Wish® Eastern North Carolina

This is what I will be doing for Father's Day. I hope you will too.

Maggiano’s Father's Day 5K | Calendar Of Events | News & Events | Make-A-Wish® Eastern North Carolina

Fun for families, kids, singles. Don't be afraid to run whether you are a father or run. Ultimate Father's Day, let your wife run and you hang with the kids.



This is the first official race to cross the new American Tobacco Trail bridge. You don't want to miss it.

Boston Marathon man Kelflezighi stops in for Carrboro visit | The Herald-Sun

Boston Marathon man Kelflezighi stops in for Carrboro visit | The Herald-Sun

RESULTS: Matthew Waller Wins Mike to Mike Half Marathon 5/4/14

RESULTS: Top finishers of Mike to Mike Half Marathon - Military - Fayetteville Observer

These results reflect a win and a personal best for one of my closest friends, Matthew Waller. I have been lucky enough to call Matthew a colleague for four years, a member of the church where I serve as pastor for about a year, and training partner in running on and off over the last three years.

Matthew is a quiet man. He can be loud at times. Ridiculously funny. But, in his soul, he is quiet. I have even seen him irritated on group runs with too much talking. Strange, that a loud-mouth like me feels drawn to someone who can be stressed among "all the people" with "all the words." He is always professional, knowledgeable about many things from baking bread to building altars to coaching athletes. He takes the running industry seriously though it is one of his most recent areas of expertise. Matthew is an excellent writer, which you might not know.

In his own running and training, he has been prone to injury. He trains and prepares very wisely, but tends to pick up a little nick or a tweak just as things start really going in the right direction.

But it would appear that he is breaking trends. He won what was I am sure was a hot hilly half-marathon this morning in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He ran a 1:14 which his training indicated was very realistic. I predicted a 1:12 or 1:13, but like I said, it was likely hot and hilly and he must have run alone from the gun given that second place was four minutes behind. These are not easy race conditions.

I am very proud to call Matthew Waller my friend. I trust Jesus, that the two of us will be friends for years to come. Even if not, I am thankful for the time thus far.

Sincerely,
George Linney
Pastor, Tobacco Trail Church

Mental Preparation: Getting to the Guts of the Athlete’s Mind

Mental Preparation:

Getting to the Guts of the Athlete’s Mind

Can you think of a time when your mental race preparation has gone great and impacted your race performance?

You were confident in your training, you were relaxed, you believed in your fuel, your nutrition.

Can you think of a time when your mental race preparation has derailed your performance OR simply ruined your life in the days leading up to a big race?

We all have these stories.

I am going to tell you three quick stories:

1987—I was 13, almost 14 and in the Eighth Grade. I was running the last and final race of my season in the Track Shack Grand Prix Series which meant I had toed the line in 5Ks and 10Ks in the Fall, Winter, and Spring probably 7 or 8 times by this race. I was a shoe-in to win my age category which had been my overwhelming goal at the beginning of the season, but now I was dreaming of much bigger things. Here I was, in bed, the night before the Winter Park 10K. I had run the Red Lobster 10K maybe three weeks before in a total breakthrough race for me—38 minutes. I had never dreamed of going that fast and the race was fairly easy like all great PR’s usually are.

From nowhere else but in between my own two ears, I had the weight of the world on my shoulders that I needed to set another PR in this last and final race. I had heard the course was faster than Red Lobster so it should have been easy.

The night before the race, I did not sleep a single minute. I ran 42 minutes, four minutes slower than a few weeks before, and I ended my season disappointed and exhausted.

I sabotaged my performance by forgetting my goals and being unrealistic and overly ambitious. Lack of sleep is not what really caused poor performance in this case.

2010—East Jesus, Maryland or West Virginia, seriously, I don’t know where we were. I was walking to the Walmart across from our RV on the blistering hot asphalt, on what had been about 10 hours of sleep over the five previous days. I thought I was going to die, throwup, passout, or worse from physical and mental exhaustion.

Yet, I rejected all those feelings, I got on my bike for probably the 40^th or 50^th time in the previous five days and executed the best riding of my life. Our Race Across America team had some major transportation glitches, meaning we only had one working van for the beginning of the session I am describing, which I could explain in great detail, but just take from the situation that I had to pull off some major team-leading decision making when I was probably on the verge of hallucination.

I relaxed, jumped curbs, dodged traffic, climbed various hills, and coordinated other bike riders to efficiently transition and ride to the best of their abilities. At the end of this two hour cycling pull, I passed out in the back of a moving van for what I was told was 45 minutes. There is a picture of me and I truly look passed-out or worse.

In the middle of an event, I just decided the best way to get to the end was to go faster and more efficiently.

2012—Wellness Center Super Sprint Triathlon. After a lackluster first attempt in 2011, I looked at the results and decided to enter the Pro Category based on my time predictions. I seeded myself last in the pool which was humbling, but appropriate. Rode a steady 10 miles on a borrowed tri-bike that I only had three rides on and that was about all the riding I did going into the race. Then, for me, the race started, and I ran a 17:36 split on a hilly Meadowmont 5K course. My only goal going into the race was to break 18 minutes for the 5K.

I set a small goal that I knew I could achieve with careful preparation and execution.

When I was 13, I was an unpredictable basket case going into races. Now, while I cannot always count on my fitness and injury-freeness at age 38, I can predict within a small window of uncertainty what my result will be before the gun goes off.

How?

I have matured mentally.

If I don’t sleep the night before, I don’t sweat it. I know sleep is cumulative.

When travel has been rough, I know that my competition and teammates have endured the same thing.

I set goals within races that I can likely control and I always focus on the second half of any event which is where everything happens both physically and mentally. That’s true for 5K’s and Half Ironman events.

Basically, I am confident, and internally, borderline cocky. I got this. I own this race or at least this part of the race. This also takes great humility. Because there are time in every race when I will look like I am under performing. Usually, in the beginning. I can see on spectator’s faces, “You are going too slow.” I ignore it. Because I know more than they do.

When bad feelings come up as adrenaline rises, I control the demons with three to five deep breaths. John Parker describes controlling the ORB in Once a Runner. There is a roar out there that you need to get up “Up” for the race, but you have to be able to control it, call on it, and dismiss it when it comes around too soon.

I don’t have a magic trick for how to get mentally race ready. For me it was putting on a bib a few hundred times as well as a good deal of self-assessment and reflection. Are you writing down or filing away mentally what worked and did not work in your race preparation?

Repeat only the things that work.

As your bad self-loathing feelings come up share them with no one, this is just for race readiness, not for the rest of life. Remember, racing is just play. It’s just a game. Even if you were or are becoming a pro athlete, you need to approach these events appropriately based on the spirit of the sport. This means approach them with the intention of having FUN. Fun and playful is loose and fast.

You can be serious if that is your personality and it is mine, but have fun, and you will exceed your expectations.