Running with God

"Running that day became for me, as I'm sure it has for others, a mystical experience. A proof of the existence of God."

-- Dr. George Sheehan, "Running and Being"

As she approached the 2-mile marker along the wooded path, Elisa Torres imagined the perfect place to run.

"I'd love to run in Dublin," she said, puffing as she slowed her pace to a walk along the Kent Trails south of John Ball Park.

"Everyone else wants to know: 'What is the course? What is your time?' I want to know: 'Is it beautiful? Are there flowers?' If there's a place you can go to be just a little bit closer to God ..."

Running takes Torres to that place, in a way nothing else does.

The Grand Rapids resident runs to keep in shape, but, more importantly, to keep connected. Instead of going to church Sunday mornings, she goes to the park with more than a dozen fellow runners. With them, she finds community, inner peace and spiritual refreshment in the cool morning air.

"It's a form of shutting off my mind and being one with God," Torres said after a recent morning run. "If God has something to say to me, I'm more likely to hear it or feel it while I'm running than at any other time of the day."

For her and many others, running is not just a pursuit of lower times and healthier bodies; it is a quest for self-awareness, spiritual nourishment and, for some, an almost worshipful experience of the divine.

Many of these spirit-fed runners will join the more than 5,000 people expected to gather for today's Fifth Third River Bank Run. As they push themselves to the limit in the 25-kilometer race, many say they will sense a fellowship and clarity of mind and spirit that eludes them in everyday life.

Sherry Harney planned to run the race for the second time. Harney, who is married to a minister, said her first River Bank Run two years ago was a powerful spiritual experience that, in many ways, paralleled her faith journey.

"The whole time I was running, I was thinking, 'This is just like my Christian walk,'" said Harney, 42, director of the children's ministry staff at Corinth Reformed Church in Byron Center. "The joy that came from that far outweighed my medal."


Running reveals religious truths

While running reinforces the lessons Harney learns at church, others say running is as close to a religious experience as they get.

Dr. George Sheehan, the late cardiologist and pioneer of the late 1970s fitness movement, extolled running's spiritual aspects 25 years ago. His best-selling book, "Running and Being," became a philosophical bible for runners worldwide.

Sheehan described an hourlong run as "a miracle of discovery and joy," in which the energy of his body revealed religious truths and the road became sacred ground.

"A tremendous energy pours through my body," he wrote. "I am whole and holy. And the universe is whole and holy and full of meaning. In the passion of this running, truth is being carried ... alive into my heart."

Many members of the Grand Rapids Running Club know the feeling well.

On Sunday mornings, they gather at John Ball Park in sun, rain or snow. At 8 a.m., they check their watches and head out in small groups on roads and trails bordering the Grand River. About 9:30, they regroup at Dillenbeck's Coffeehouse, 1059 W. Fulton St., for a kind of post-adrenaline communion over latte and bagels.

On a recent morning -- clear, sunny and cool -- club president Maureen Pluger logged 13 miles with Dave Minier. They talked about praying for a child fighting cancer while admiring the sun off the river and the buds in the trees.

"How many times did we say, 'How beautiful a morning this is'?" Pluger said to Minier over coffee later. "How many times did I say in my head, 'Thank you, God, for this beautiful day'?"

Pluger, 40, a veteran of the Boston Marathon and other races, faithfully attends Catholic Masses on weekends. But she never misses the Sunday-morning runs, where she finds God in nature and the rush of pleasure-producing endorphins through her brain.

"You think, 'How did I get this high on running?' It's God," said Pluger, a Hudsonville mother of three.


A sense of community

Minier doesn't plumb such spiritual depths but feels free to talk about prayer and other personal things with running partners.

"We talk about everything under the sun," said Minier, 54, of Wyoming. "That's what the run does -- it lets you open up and feel comfortable."

That sense of community also attracts runners who do not find it in church.

Kathryn Wilcox has a theology degree and once wanted to be a missionary. She then got turned off by her church's unsupportive treatment of women while she was going through a divorce. But the Hudsonville resident finds tons of support among fellow runners.

"It's like a church group," said Wilcox, 42, who is remarried and drives a school bus. "I'd rather be out there than in a church somewhere. It makes you feel very alive when you're out there running."

She often runs with Tamara Steil, a 20-year-veteran of the group and highly ranked racer. Steil hits the trails while her husband takes their two daughters to church. She takes judgmental glances from motorists in stride, finding her spiritual sustenance in deep discussions and picking up litter.

"We take care of the community, we take care of each other," said Steil, 48, a math teacher in Grandville. "This is an extremely moral community."

She was nearly moved to tears recalling the night of Sept. 11, 2001, when the group decided to go ahead with a scheduled run. A fellow runner, Grand Rapids firefighter Ron Merizon, helped members cope by pointing out the bravery of rescue workers who died in the World Trade Center.

"It was a day when we communed together," Steil said. "We needed each other."

The community of running is crucial for Elisa Torres, a newcomer. She and her longtime companion, Tim Looney, joined the group after moving here from Chicago last summer.

Torres at first sought friends by going to church. She found them instead in the running group. Wounded long ago by a bad church experience, she found a kind of sanctuary in long, Sunday-morning runs with a diverse and supportive congregation.

"I feel accepted here," said Torres, 33, a nursing student at Grand Valley State University. "I've never felt like that in church. These are my brothers and sisters."

But running has softened her attitude toward church through conversations with fellow runners. It also has drawn her closer to God, like a "cleansing ritual."

"Something about feeling the heart pumping and the lungs working -- it's an affirmation: 'Of course God exists.' Maybe God isn't that white man sitting on a cloud. Maybe it's this air that I breathe."


Not a substitute for church

About 15 miles south, Sherry Harney feels God's presence in solitary runs through her Byron Center neighborhood. But for her, running is no substitute for church. It is a reinforcement of her faith.

On a recent weekday, an 8-mile run helped her work out what she would say in a church women's program that evening. Running also gives her ideas for the editing and writing she does for Zondervan Publishing. She is working on a book with her husband, the Rev. Kevin Harney, pastor at Corinth Reformed Church.

Sherry Harney, a mother of three adolescent boys, runs to find sacred time in a busy life.

"For me, it's a wonderful time to hear God," said Harney, 42. "It's not that God's speaking more; it's that the distractions are less."

She quotes the Scottish runner-turned-missionary Eric Liddel, the "Chariots of Fire" Olympic champion: "I feel the pleasure of God when I run."

She especially likes to run during rain and snowstorms. Scriptural truths leap to life as she realizes God is in charge.

"It parallels my Christian walk. I'm going to live for Jesus my whole life, no matter what comes my way."

Her first River Bank Run was almost like a worship service. When she felt winded after six miles, a runner came alongside and shouted, "Come on, you can do it!" When she developed a side ache, someone else told her of a breathing technique that stopped it.

"It's a community the church should have. You have this one goal, and you're helping each other get through it."

Her goal for today's run was to get through it again, preferably with a better time. But her goal on each run is simply to feel God's pleasure while enjoying his great creation.

"Once I hit the road," she said, "it's time for me and God."