Why a Sub 4hr. Marathon Was Easy

I have been trying to break the 4 hour barrier in a marathon for about 2 years. During that time I have run eight marathons. The closest that I came to a sub 4 hour time was a 4:05. I looked around me and thought that something must be wrong with me. I was following the training regime, I was eating relatively healthy, but for some reason every single time, I would either "bonk" or my legs would suffer debilitating cramps.

I thought that maybe I wasn't training hard enough, so I upped my training regime so that I was busting out sprints and 10-13 mile tempo runs each week. My weekend runs were between 20-26 miles - still no change. I would get lightheaded and confused in a race - almost to the point of passing out.

I then figured that maybe my problem was that I wasn't mentally tough enough, so I began to work on exercises to strengthen my mind during the tough times. Still no result - my legs kept cramping.

I was reading something in a book one day and all of a sudden something connected in my brain; I thought: "Maybe my problem isn't fitness, training, or mental toughness, maybe my problem is fueling." I thought that my "bonking" could be caused by sending my body dangerously close to hypoglycemic shock due to the fact that I was drinking only water and taking 2 gels during a race. Then a further brain blast clued me in to the knowledge that my cramping could be an electrolyte imbalance because I was just drinking water. Hmmm.

I decided to change my fueling method and the next marathon, I had no problems whatsoever. I glided through the marathon at an easy pace, no cramping, no bonking! I achieved a 14 minute PR of 3:51:49 with hardly much effort. I just had to change my fueling.

Sometimes I think that's how it is with Christianity. We strain so hard to act like "perfect Christians," never feeling like we measure up. We change this habit and that habit, trying to achieve some ill-defined goal. The result is frustration. I would submit that maybe it's not as hard as we make it. Maybe Christianity is being, not just doing. Maybe all we need to do is "change our fueling." Maybe our expectations of "what a Christian is" are wrong. Maybe we don't have to strive so hard to live the Christian life. Maybe it's enough to draw close to God (our fuel) and let Him sustain and direct us. What do you think?