The Curse of Multiple Laps

My half ironman event has multiple loops on the run. So, I regularly practice doing multiple loops in training and using my truck as a turnaround aid station. But it is just me out there. No one knows how many loops I planned to do. Coming back to the truck brought with it the temptation to cut the run short especially since the day was getting hotter.

I have faced this curse before. Running the San Antonio Marathon, I was sick to my stomach from something eaten the night before. The course went right by my hotel and my room was only a few feet away...Oh that urge to quit! Then once again doing the Houston Marathon it was hot and steamy and I was done. My hotel was right there just off the course at about mile 22-23. I could see the door to my room.. Oh that urge to quit!

I had planned on 3 loops today. My truck could be seen a quarter of a mile away as I finished my 2nd loop. Do I just do 2 loops and call it good enough? After all, it is terribly hot out here. I am not really going all that fast out here. What difference will it make?

To me it makes all the difference and this was the defining moment of my run and for my training today. The difference will be to know that I didn't quit though everything physical screamed stop. Temptation is like that in all of life, in our faith life.

I did not risk stopping but threw my hand-held water bottle in the back of the truck, picked up my fresh bottle from the bumper and went back out. The last loop turned out to be the best loop of the day; not because it was faster, but because of the hard won satisfaction in my heart of resisting the temptation to quit.
I had fought and bested the curse of multiple loops