Bonking (aka. Hitting the Wall)

Long distance runners use this term to describe that feeling one gets when mid-run the runner is suddenly fatigued and has a tremendous loss of energy. We’re not talking about the mere cramping of a calf, or the everyday slowing caused by lactic acid build-up, or the deep muscle pain sometimes caused by downhill running. Marathoners used to call bonking “hitting the wall,” but it’s actually a bodily form of sedition. In some form or another, it becomes a collapse of the entire system: body and form, brains and soul.

They say it is because of the the depletion of glycogen stored in the liver and muscles. And, if you search it on-line you’ll find article after article on how to avoided it but the most obvious is to ensure that glycogen levels are high when the exercise begins, maintaining glucose levels during exercise by eating or drinking carbohydrate-rich substances, or by reducing exercise intensity.

We bonk at times spiritually and mentally. Can we apply this idea of avoiding the “bonk” to the real life race we all run? What is the cause and how is it avoided? The word “remember” keeps coming back to me and the following words provide encouragement to keep on running this race.

Hebrews 12:1-3 Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!

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