Ultramarathon Faith

Running a marathon is one thing — a hard thing to be sure. But running across the country?

One step at a time.

That’s the only way to run a marathon. Focus too much on the finish line, and you’ll never complete the course.

On his 40th birthday, a Presbyterian pastor named Henry Brinton was challenged to run the Marine Corps Marathon. The man issuing the challenge was a friend who happened to be a Catholic priest. Henry thought he was crazy.

“I had no experience as a runner,” writes Brinton in Washingtonian magazine (November 2007), “and the prospect of 26.2 miles was daunting. But I needed a midlife challenge. My priest friend had run several marathons, so he gave me some tips and turned me loose.”

“The first time I hit the road, I ran for three minutes and had to stop, gasping for breath. But after walking for seven minutes, I was able to run for another three, and then I walked another seven and ran three. Over several weeks, my running increased and my walking decreased until I could run for an hour. And then I ran two hours.”