Given the insurmountable nature of this state of being, the challenge lies in our engagement with these contingencies. We have a choice: either we can consciously struggle against these limitations or passively play the role of a victim. The victim feels the buffets of these barriers without expectation or understanding. The unconquerable runner on the other hand knows, explores, and engages every boundary in order to understand and intelligibly interact with such barriers. It is by coming up against such limits that he overcomes and pushes them back. Faster times over greater distances are achieved through attending to physical conditioning, diet, and mental stamina.
The key to successfully accomplishing such feats lies in careful cultivation and patient persistence. A good diet only has positive effects on a marathoner's performance after weeks and even months of eating appropriate combinations of proteins and carbohydrates. Endurance follows weeks and weeks of consistent running. Avoidance of injury relies heavily on routine stretching and strength condition. Time spent running on the road and track provides a runner with the mental stamina and confidence necessary to face the race. Improvement is seen only after a runner puts in much time and careful attention to such details over extended periods of time.
Here, once again, the utility of running as a life metaphor comes clear in how the unconquerable runner engages the limitations. Dependence on daily nutrition becomes an asset by selecting the types of foods that maximize running performance. By completing daily distance runs the runner activates the body's ability to increase its capacity to metabolize oxygen and glycogen efficiently. In this way, barriers come to provide a means for overcoming and pushing beyond them. In an ironic turn, we as humans possess the surprising quality of surpassing our contingencies by wisely and carefully engaging them. Running from them, seeking to find escape from these restraints actually leads to debilitation and weakness.
Thus the unconquerable runner embraces and engages his limits and, by so doing, rises above the status of victimhood.
