Running with God

 

When Christian Blanchard crossed the finish line at the Rocket City Marathon in Huntsville last weekend, he pointed upward and, neither elated nor disappointed, thought, "Oh, I just finished a marathon. Thanks, God."

He crossed the finish line after 26.2 miles in 3:28:21 -- placing first in his age group of 19 and under.

Blanchard is 17.

He moved to Montgomery from Hawaii less than two years ago. His dad, Shane, is an instructor at Air Command Staff College. Blanchard is home-schooled and sometimes runs with local high school runners during their offseason. Otherwise, he trains solo, or sometimes runs with his dad or brother, Austin, who turns 16 Wednesday and is himself a 1:40 half marathoner.

Blanchard registered to run the Rocket City in May, and looked at it as an "ultimate accomplishment."

"I've always looked at a marathon as one of the greatest feats of running," he said. "When I started running with my dad in Hawaii just for exercise, four miles felt like a marathon."

Before the Rocket City race, Blanchard's longest run was 18 miles just three weeks before the race. He wanted to run up to 20 miles, but it didn't fit into his schedule. His schedule did allow for basketball to be used as his speed work.

"The 18 miles was a rough run," he said. "It really helped me understand the concept of bonking."

There was no training plan for Rocket City, but Blanchard made sure his base long mileage was 10 miles. Leading up to the marathon, his Saturday long runs were: 10, 12, 10, 14, 10, 16, 10 and 18 miles.

"Ten miles was the standard distance," he said. "I really wanted to stay safe and not get injured."

The teen's first race was the Great Aloha Run in February 2010. He finished the 8.1-mile race with at a 9:30 average mile. The race, he said, got him hooked on running.

Since moving to Montgomery, Blanchard won his age group in January at the Auburn Classic Half Marathon, with a time of 1:39:03. He also won his age group at the Montgomery Half Marathon in 2010 with a 1:27:39, and placed third in his age group this year, with a time of 1:32:06.

"At Rocket City, in my excitement of the race, and in my ignorance of what a marathon was, I wanted to qualify for Boston," he said, referring to the only marathon that requires runners to meet qualifying time standards. The BQ for Blanchard's age group is 3:05.

The first half of the marathon landed him at 1:31 -- a 6:57 pace. In the second half, the course turned around and the wind hit, and the seconds added on to miles, and the miles, he said, just piled on.

His family stood along the course, encouraging him throughout. And when his dad joined him for a bit at mile 20, Blanchard told him, "This is no joke."

"That's when you realize how far you can push yourself," he said. "It becomes a mental game at that point. I think there's a really great analogy between running and your faith life. Especially running a marathon ... the whole sport of running is about pushing yourself and being determined to persevere when you don't have anything left.

"I think that just relates so well to our spiritual life -- whenever we're broken down spiritually, whenever we're having doubts about our faith in God and our faith in Christ, and doubts about trusting him and just being totally broken down and feeling like nothing inside. It is in the same way as mile 20 in the marathon."

Mile 20 -- with 6.2 miles left to run -- is a great way to learn how to give the race up to God, he said, and to tell God, "I can't do this by myself, I need you to take over. I just need you to be with me right now to get through. I like that relationship to be made between running and the spiritual life."