Running - an analogy to life

So, I've been running a little bit lately. I used to be that girl that absolutely hated presidential fitness testing because I hated running the mile. In high school when I played volleyball I hated running for conditioning more than anything else. I am still not the biggest fan of running, but every once in a while I just feel like going for a run. It is a good escape, a good time for me to just go out and not think about anything in particular, to forget about things that may be stressing me out.
Since I have been home from school, I have been running a bit. The past couple of times I have run for an hour or close to it - which is an accomplishment for me :) As I have been running these last few times I have thought about how running relates to life. We start out all ready to go, one may even say we are excited. This is how we surely were as we were in thee pre-existence awaiting our chance at life, so that we could come down and become more like our Father in Heaven and prove ourselves worthy. During the run, or during our lives we have times where we want to give up, we are tired and it would be easier just to walk. There are times in life when we experience trials and sometimes we just want to give up, but we don't. We keep running and we eventually make it home. If we just keep going we will eventually make it home to our Father in Heaven. The feeling of making it home and having gotten a good workout is so good. This is one place where running and life differ, the feeling we get when we return home to our Heavenly father is unlike any feeling we will ever experience here - even the feeling of making it home after a long run.
It has been said before that life is not a sprint, it is a marathon. How true that is. Sometimes it gets hard, but we just have to keep going. Life will have it's ups and downs, but if we just keep going we will make it home!