Approximately 40,000 people ran in the NYC Marathon.  As I observed the massive crowds running down 4th Avenue in Brooklyn the following verse came to mind:

1 Corinthians 9:24-27
24Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27But I discipline my body and keep it under control,lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

These runners lived a life of discipline and self-control.  They pushed themselves out of their comfort zones and denied themselves the finer pleasures of life for one purpose: to run the race and finish well.  Yet there reward is perishable.  God has called me to run a race.  Am I pushing and denying myself with the same tenacity as those who ran the NYC Marathon?

“Lord grant me the grace to exercise self-control in all things that I might run this race that you set before me, and that I might finish well and not be disqualified by self-indulgence.”