For the first time in 124 years, the Boston Marathon has been cancelled due to the pandemic. Now, I’ve never run a marathon for one main reason. I never wanted to. I ran a 10K once in college and that was enough.

Ironically, we are all in a marathon of sorts here with the pandemic, and there is a phenomenon in the marathon world that might be worthwhile to take note of during this time . . . it’s called hitting the wall.



In layman’s terms it means to experience sudden fatigue and loss of energy because the energy stores in the body are depleted. It usually happens in the last third of the race. The result? Weakness, headaches, dizziness, along with other symptoms. Some racers give up at that point, but the more experienced have learned how to run through it and even how to prepare in advance to avoid it.

I don’t know where we are in this pandemic (I doubt it is the final third), but I think we all have or will “hit our wall.” Whatever novelty to the shutdown that was there in the early days is long gone. The house has shrunk, the hair is unmanageable, the internet needs are crashing into each other, the bills are increasing, the stressors multiplying. Our energy stores are wiped out. We are experiencing all kinds of unhealthy side effects. Even as the world begins to open back up, restrictions still remain, and we want to quit. We want normal life back.

Unlike marathon runners, we didn’t have a chance to prepare, and though I am in no way a psychologist, I think we might be able to glean a couple of useful tips from those marathoners to make it to our own finish line.

Though the marathon is a race, the two main suggestions to survive the wall are to . . . walk and eat. In our lingo––rest and nourish.

If possible, give yourself a break . . . any kind of break . . . for whatever length of time you can generate––mind and body. Break from responsibility, from expectations, from walls. Walk. Figuratively and literally.

Second, eat––feed body, mind, spirit. Sometimes that means taking "food" in . . . and sometimes that means giving "food" to others. Both are nourishing.

Finally, always, always, always realize that we are NOT in this alone.

But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:31

I get it now. I can see how it happens: how ideology against ideology, belief versus belief, and deep contrasting political convictions regarding  the government's reach on individual freedoms can turn friend against friend and brother against brother.

It happened in the Civil War and it looks like it is happening again––in 2020––because of Covid-19.


CBS posted a humorous look at this clash of values, as kids are rising up in protest against their parents: one fining her mother for putting corn in the chili, one group of siblings taking their mother hostage and making her take a nap in their room with the light on, while another young boy took his new-found knowledge of the American Revolution to create his own country and manifesto and then deny his parents the right to enter his bedroom.

These are the light moments, but there are tense moments as well, as disagreements about the cause, the threat, and the appropriate reaction surface among adults.

As I watch the various news outlets and listen to different reports and opinions, I am struck by one very real consistency: There are definitely two sides, manifested most simply by those wanting to go back to work protesting at the very same time as those not wanting to be at work.

Covid-19 itself is a physical threat, whether or not we all agree on the severity of it. Let’s not let it also threaten the very fabric of our relationships as well.

These are stressful times for everyone. Even in the best of times we don’t agree on all issues, so maybe now is a good time to say very little and not try to convince others of the rightness of our position, but instead be respectful of others' position and act instead. Perhaps we should adhere to the advice of Romans 12:10-13:

Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.