Sprint for you Life

To wit, I’ve been thinking about sprinting a bit, and why so many of our campers are, to be truthful, terrified of it. Partly, I think it’s just because it’s been so long since they’ve actually done it. Probably in college for some of them who were athletes, or high school or even as small children. It’s when we’re kids that sprinting is done simply for the sheer joy of it, because it feels good to use your muscles and go as fast as you possibly can go. You cross your imaginary finish line and you’ve conquered the world.

Then we grow older and we become more reserved; we want to “act like adults,” and that means measuring your pace, being dignified, being in control. And I think getting a little bit out of control again scares people.

Here’s the thing: I think we should encourage our campers to sprint for their lives, literally and figuratively. We joke in camp that “if you never go fast, you never go fast,” and we know the health benefits of interval training, the improvement in cardiovascular performance and endurance we gain from sprinting.

But I think it’s much more than that. I think it’s about learning to push the limits, to go to your boundaries and REALLY get out of your comfort zone. I think we need to relearn how to conquer the world.

Because so many of us, when we act like adults, when we’re dignified and in control, we become scared and we become small. We don’t apply for the job or the promotion because what happens if we don’t get it? We don’t say what we really mean because what if somebody laughs? We don’t live a life of joy and purpose because we’re too busy just getting through each day at that customary measured pace.

What I want for our campers – and for myself and for all of us – is to break out of that. To live gloriously, full speed, wide open, all systems on go. To conquer the world. That wall you just might run into should have a you-shaped hole in it.

I don’t mean literally speed up your life. God knows, we have too much of that already and never enough hours in the day to get everything done. But stop muddling and shuffling through every day. Get somewhere on purpose – wherever you’re going in life, whatever your goals.

Pick a direction and go. All out. And if you fail, if you stumble, if you fall arse over teakettle, do it at a dead run.


So. There’s my profundity for the day. Not much, but I’ve been playing it over in my mind. Maybe it’s just my own personal hang ups and that’s why I like to sprint so much. I conquer the world each time. And I often fall arse over teakettle, as you are well aware. But I’d so much rather that than standing still.

Thanks to each of you for being in my life and helping me live a life of joy and purpose, gloriously.

Killian Edwards, Flowery Branch OBC instructor.