Keep Your Eyes on the Prize

Chatting to a non-runners about ultra marathons they often quick to pick up that these races are much more than a physical challenge. “It sounds as much a mental battle as anything else” mused one bewildered chap I spoke to this week. He is right. Whilst the speed of athletes from the front to the back of the pack varies hugely, the whole field is unified by a shared disposition to mental resilience. Arguably, the slower you are, the tougher your mind has to be. It’s generally agreed that most DNFs (Did Not Finish) are the result of a breakdown of psychological, rather than physiological capacity. It’s all too easy to become disillusioned and discouraged when you’re stuck in a difficult moment, and you can’t get out of it.

I prefer their earlier work

This is why runners arm themselves with techniques and tricks to keep their motivation up and their minds stimulated. We explored one such technique in Follow the Heels: fixing our eyes on the feet ahead of us; blocking out external distractions; forgetting the big picture, focusing on the moment; and taking it one step at a time. A valuable method.

Interestingly, the opposite approach of keeping your eyes on the prize ahead is equally useful.

During the summer edition of the Spine Race in 2023, I was in a low place as I approached Britain’s highest pub, the Tan Hill Inn. It was sunrise on day three of the race and the night had not been kind to me. Moving more and more slowly, I had got myself into a mental funk. I was lost in my own ruminations, absorbed in my own concerns. I’d turned in on myself and as a result had lost all perspective.

What I needed was to lift my eyes out of my present situation and consider the big picture.

Tan Hill at the exact moment described above

The reformer Martin Luther proposed that “sin is man turned in on himself”. When we get absorbed in our own world and preoccupied by temporal things, we take our eyes off our heavenly prize.

The Apostle Paul writes:

One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Phil 3:13-14

Paul reminds us to lift our gaze heavenward and to see our temporal circumstances in the context of a much greater reality beyond this moment. In doing so we remind ourselves that our destiny is an eternity with Christ where we will live in perfect unity with the Father as inheritors of a kingdom that can never perish, spoil or fade. Knowing this, we live today in the light of eternity. We strain towards what is ahead, fixing our eyes on the prize and pressing on towards the goal.

This is in keeping with Hebrews 12 which encourages us to look to Jesus as both “pioneer and perfecter” of faith. As the pioneer he leads us in the race. As the perfecter, he is the one who has already gone before us and awaits us at the finishing tape.

He is the pioneer and perfecter. He is the beginning and the end. He is the starter and the finisher. He is the race and the finish line. He is our daily bread as well as out our eternal reward.

Back to the Tann Hill Inn. As I trudged along I began shouting at myself in an exasperated tone, “What are we doing Pheggl?” (Pheggl is a nickname I acquired as a student and for some reason it came out again in this moment.) After berating myself in this way for a while, I found myself beginning to answer my own question. “We’re running to Scotland”.

All of a sudden, things began to snap back into shape. By lifting my gaze from my present struggle and fixing my eyes on the prize, I knew what to do. What had been an exasperated cry became a motivating refrain. For the next two days I moved with purpose, repeating out loud “What are we doing Pheggl? We’re running to Scotland”

I would go on to have the most enjoyable and successful race to date.

When you know the destination, it makes for a better journey. Keep your eyes on the prize.

RESULT!The finish line - Summer Spine race 2023

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This post is part of a series of short blogs titled Faith Endurance, based on a sermon series preached at St Peter’s Morley in Spring 2024. Subscribe to get notifications each time a new blog is released.