Thursday, October 22, 2009

Patron Saint for Runners ...

Being a Catholic I thought I would try and find out who the patron saint is for marathons, runners, running, etc. There are patron saints for so many causes and reasons I thought surely there would be one.

Anyways, it seems there IS NOT! Wow. The closest suggested one is St. Sebastian, who is patron saint for athletes; but, not sure a saint known for being shot with arrows is may be the ideal choice for a marathon.

So, I looked at some choices. St. Jude, the patron of desperate causes? St. Joseph, the patron saint of workers? St. Christopher, the patron saint of travellers (but he is now on a semi-retired saint list)? St. Anthony, the patron saint of lost things (as in Where the bloody bleep is Mile 26?) ? Joseph and Anthony get bonus points for being my middle names as well. I was born at St. Jude's; so, that has some backing as well.

Anyways, since there is no designated one, I think I will stick with my main patron saint, St. Michael, patron of battles! Hey, he has a nice big sword for the struggle, wings to really keep moving, and fleet-looking footware. He has the scales to remind me to keep everything balanced and sound, well until ít is sprinting time. That sounds like a winner. I need all the backing I can get!

Come March 21 .... St. Michael the Archangel, Defend Us In Day of Battle!


3 comments:

  1. Hello Fellow RoadRunner!

    I've been reading your blog for about two weeks now. I found you while I was trying to find the RoadRunners theme song. "Mile one is just for fun..." (I have that song in my head like 24/7)

    I'm glad you did well with the unexpected added mile last Sat.. Hopefully, we won't get any further surprises this weekend. I'm still trying to recover from last Sat.

    I'm in Run/Walk Group 2. Hopefully someday I'll be able to join a faster group.

    See you this weekend!

    Nancy

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  2. Thanks for the comment.

    Yes, exactly ... "Mile One ... it's just for fun" and then scaling up to "Mile 10 ... let's do it again." I am not sure how we will do when we cross that line ... "Mile 26 ... I need trail mix"?

    My goal right now is to finish ... then comes speed. The run/walk groups look like they have more fun anyways and some of the walk groups really do. My old group (8) was a bit more lively than my new one; but, it's all good.

    See you this weekend ... look for the crazy guy with the black cap in #7.

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  3. Greetings! Just came across this post while trying to look up the patron saint of runners! I, too, am a Catholic runner preparing for L.A. 2010 (ran it the first time, by the grace of God, last year). FYI, two good choices for running patrons are Sts. Peter and John the Beloved, who ran to the empty tomb. I've blogged about them here:

    http://www.runningcatholic.com/2009/12/are-you-john-or-peter.html

    Good luck and God bless!

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