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# First Thoughts: Running as a spiritual practice
- URL: https://www.ontheshoreline.com/first-thoughts-running-as-a-spiritual-practice/
- Published: 2026-10-02T08:35:42.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T08:37:52.000Z
- Description: Rev’d Jane calls on two fruits of the spirit to get her through her runs
- Author: Revd Jane Bartlett
- Tags: First Thoughts, Autumn 26

At the beginning of March, much to my astonishment, I took up running. In my 63 years I have never been a runner, and even dashing for the bus would leave me in a heaving heap.

Yet, following a recent diagnosis of a lung condition, I knew that exercise was no longer optional but essential. You’ve simply got to do it, Jane! I told myself, recognising that if any activity could challenge my lungs and improve their health, it was running — a most brutally aerobic pursuit.

I have been using the NHS app ‘From Couch to 5K’, which I can thoroughly recommend. It is the run-walk method, that over nine weeks builds you up from one minute to 30 minutes of running. I am now consistently running for 30 minutes or more, with a 5k ‘Parkrun’ in my sight as a summer challenge.

Each run brings a mix of anticipation and trepidation. The sea front has become my training ground, and I discover that there are many other runners out there, whizzing past the church each day. We exchange nods of recognition, sharing a brief yet meaningful camaraderie — the kind that can only come from mutual effort and sweat.

![A smiling woman in a bright red top and black leggings jogs along a sandy gravel path lined with green shrubs and wildflowers under a blue sky with wispy clouds. Behind her, a man in a light blue shirt walks a black dog on a long lead.](https://www.ontheshoreline.com/content/images/2026/10/770823681_28278266621780842_7597253819884899531_n.jpg)

I am a slow runner, and it is likely to always be so. On Saturdays the serious runners train, speeding by with a magnificence of athletic ability that I admire even more in my plodding. I can’t comprehend how Sabastian Sawe recently ran the London Marathon in two hours!

As I push myself through each run, I begin to notice parallels between physical endurance and spiritual growth, prompting me to explore running as a form of prayer. Running, I’ve discovered, is not just a physical journey but a spiritual one. There are books that offer guidance on transforming your run into a spiritual practice, suggesting mantras or holy words to focus the mind on a deeper purpose. They recommend connecting with your breath, delighting in the beauty of the natural world—the way sunlight dances on the sea, the salt in the air —all these moments anchor me in the present, where God is certainly to be found. Indigenous traditions have much to teach us, such as ‘prayer running’, where movement honours the land and the ancestors.

The discipline of running demands that I nurture two fruits of the spirit—self-control and forbearance. It’s a rhythm that insists upon sabbath rest, building in days for recovery and reminding me to honour the limits of my body. The journey is much like the spiritual life: a marathon with peaks and valleys, requiring resilience and determination. The writer of Hebrews 12 urges, ‘Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,’ and each step I take seems to echo this call.

![A black-and-white line drawing of an open shoebox containing a pair of running shoes nestled in tissue paper. A fitness tracker band sits on the ground beside the box.](https://www.ontheshoreline.com/content/images/2026/10/Artwork-Running-shoes-and-Fitbit-mono-jan21-fr.jpg)

There is much spiritual food for me to reflect upon as I move from couch to 5k. I’m encountering the miracle of the human body that over thousands of years of evolution has been made to run, yet has become sedentary in our modern world.

Listening to exhilarating music as I run can be a tremendous uplift. I hold out the promise of the so called ‘runners high, a state of euphoria, apparently induced by a burst of endorphins, but for the spiritual runner, a potential experience of oneness with the creator.

I realise that some people at the Good Shepherd cannot run, but we can all reflect upon how we use our bodies in worship. Bodies often get ignored in Anglican churches, trapped as they are in the pews. But there are moments when with awareness we can appreciate how the body is part of worship — in our standing, sitting and kneeling; in folding hands during prayer, or lifting them high, stretching out palms to receive communion, making the sign of the cross. These are embodied forms of worship that we participate in, probably without realising it. Our relationship with Christ does not have to be limited to our minds or hearts, we can honour God with our whole selves, as I am discovering during my runs.