The Vertical Race

Marathoners run horizontal races; stair climbers run vertical ones in some of the world’s tallest buildings. Paul invokes sporting metaphors when he looks back on a life of faith.

The starting gun for the New York City Marathon will fire next Sunday morning as runners from around the world will begin the 26.2-mile race through the streets -- barring some change in plans due to the bombings at the Boston Marathon in April. (As we write now, this latter event is still in the news.) But, every effort will no doubt be made to ensure a safe event for the runners of one of the world's most famous marathons. Some of the runners will race for the prize while others will consider a respectable finish to be a great accomplishment.

But while running a marathon is still a popular bucket list item for many people, other regular marathoners believe that running such a long horizontal distance again and again over time can really beat up the body, not to mention the fact that logging mile after mile on the course can get kind of monotonous. An increasing number of those runners, in fact, are becoming less interested in hoofing it through the streets and more interested in the...