Dave Byrne – Jesus was a Distance Runner

I’m far from being a religious type. If anything, I’m likely to burst into flames if I ever walked through a church. But I recently saw an image of old mate and it got me thinking, “Jesus you remind me of a distance runner!”

Why? Well to begin with, you just need to look at his appearance. Check out how bloody skinny yet muscular the bloke was! He has that malnourished but wiry and strong look about him. Those skinny legs could probably tap out a decent tempo on a mountain trail. If you compared his figure to your average marathoner, he looks very similar. Then there’s the beard. The contemporary ultra runner has a tendency to lean towards being a hipster. The facial hair and long locks are akin to many an old-school mountain man.

Next we look at diet. Jesus was a healthy eater, for the most part. Fish and bread, or carbs and protein were his foods of choice. It’s all fuel for the machine. But he didn’t mind a drop of red wine, which is something most distance runners can relate to.

Now how about his clear like of suffering. Jesus chose to walk endless miles in oppressive conditions. He had no issues with copping a literal and figurative beating as he pursued his passion. Whatever was thrown at him he battled onward. Sounds like the attitude of many a 1oo mile runner!

The training group. We all have mates we share the journey with and in his case, Jesus had his disciples. A bunch of likeminded blokes that were happy to toil away and then share a drink at the end of the day. And what’s also fascinating is that in every squad there’s a Judas. The guy that’s just bloody annoying and not entirely a team player. He’s the fella on race day that has all the talk but can’t walk the walk, and at any opportunity will take advantage of the misfortunes of others.

Finally you have that whole air of awesomeness that many top distance runners have about them. You know how you see what they achieve and think to yourself “How did they do that?” Sometimes their ability seems unearthly and beyond the realms of mortal man. With the big guy, this is actually the case!