What Role Should Competition Play In One's...

What role should competition play in one's running?

If the runner is a seeker, then he has a special role. His role is to compete with himself and try to increase his own capacity. But he has to know that he will increase his capacity only by virtue of the infinite Grace of God, if so is the Will of God. So the seeker-runner will try to consciously surrender to the Will of God during his running career.

If the runner is not a seeker, his aim is immediate success and the immediate manifestation of his unparalleled supremacy. He wants to defeat all his rivals mercilessly and, like Julius Caesar, to declare, "I came, I saw, I conquered."

Don Kardong finished fourth in the 1976 Olympic Marathon in 2:11:16 and won the 1978 Honolulu Marathon in 2:17:04. For many years he won or placed high at the Bloomsday Race in Washington State, and later organized it and made the race into a mega-attraction for runners in the Northwest. He is currently President of the Road Runners Club of America and has written many articles about running and training for magazines and other publications, including Runners World, Footnotes and Running Times.