Running and Life - when slower gets you there sooner

I know you’ve heard of the old Tortoise and the Hare story. In that fable, we are shown that a tortoise making steady progress beats a rabbit who gets sidetracked. But then we are presented with the seemingly conflicting exhortation to “stop and smell the flowers”!

Which is right? I contend that both are correct. When you are aiming at something that will require effort and time, steady is the right pace. Yet, we have to take breaks and smell the flowers, and there are times when a burst of rabbit-like swiftness is exactly what's required. Wisdom and judgment are required to guide us to making the right choice.

I’m a runner. Everybody needs regular exercise, and I’ve always been ablet to keep myself motivated to get it if something I do is “measurable”. That way, I can prove to myself (and myself alone) that I’m staying in shape, or even improving.

My regular course is a five-mile run in my neighborhood. A series of rolling hills, though our rural farmland, and a lot of "hello" waves to the neighbors, it fulfils me on several levels. With a total altitude change of only 100 feet, there's nothing truly strenuous about it. In the winter time, I go indoors, and lose my sense of how well I'm doing, and tend to lose my conditioning for even gentle hills. This year, I got a later than normal start in my outdoor running. In frustration, I pushed myself. If you’re a runner, you understand what it is that’s wrong with going too fast – you can’t keep it up. So you slow down. I’ve been running this route in 45 to 47 minutes every day, usually in the evening. I dreaded the worst of the gentle hills, and at first, was slowing to a walk at the top. Then I started slowing down while going up the hill, which allowed me to at least run the entire distance. Today, I started out much slower than I had been running. Thanks to that, I did not have to slow down so much up the hills, and finished my run in 42 minutes, my best time so far this year.

And thus is much of life! We can all burst our way through at the last minute – and we should for those parts of life that are worth it. That last-minute push to get a project at work done might get us a bonus. What college student doesn’t understand the benefit of a late-night study session for a morning test – after which, one can flop into bed and pretend to catch up on sleep?

I don’t advocate slow – but I do advocate steady. If you become good at pacing yourself, in everything you do, then you’ll also become aware of when and why you should put on a burst of speed. And, you’ll know that you should only do so if you can handle a “down day” or a “down afternoon” immediately after that.

Bonus - if you do this, then you will appear a far more predictable and steady friend to others, and will reap benefits not only in your career, but in your social endeavors.