12 miles. 2 hours. 38 min. 47 sec.
GO ME!
The alarm went off at 5 this morning. I ignored it, but I tricked myself by also setting an alarm for 5:15 and I couldn’t ignore that one. I hopped out of bed, ate my breakfast of champions (a bowl of honey nut cheerios, with a sliced banana and soy milk), got my running duds on, threw some chicken in the slow cooker and headed out to Grapevine Lake for the TNT Family Reunion. There were TNT groups from all over North Texas and it was really nice to run with such a big group. It was even nicer to have a change of scenery!
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| The Group Rally before the run |
Before the run, the group leaders do a little speech…yaddayaddayadda. It’s really hard for me to pay attention during this time because I’m usually so pumped to get running but it caught my attention when they said that TNT has raised Billions for cancer research (Thats Billions with “B”) since it started in 1988. That is absolutely mind blowing. It feels so good to be a very tiny piece of that. Words cannot describe how good I feel about that. Someday, there will be a cure for cancer and I might just be a small part of that.
Now, that got me to thinking about being such a small part of the marathon in San Francisco, which lead being such a small part of the history of the marathon. I mean, this is a test of endurance that has existed since 490 BC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marathon). On October 18th, I will have participated in one of the oldest races in the history of the world. That’s a pretty cool feeling too.
I had the pleasure of running next to a friend that I met through TNT today. He is a leukemia survivor and he is actually running 10 marathons in one year to raise $250k for LLS. He is inspirational to say the least. We had a great chat about spirituality and how God puts people in your path for a reason. We find them in grocery stores, on the trail and just everywhere. They are strategically placed “angels” that get us through tough times, no matter how trivial or daunting an obstacle may seem. I made it my New Year’s resolution to read a chapter of the Bible every day and I am so happy to have done this. Along with my training journey, I’ve been on a spiritual journey of sorts and I am learning so much about myself and my real dreams, my real passion and my real strengths and weaknesses. Talking with “Mr. Marathon” today just made me feel so loved and thankful.
He definitely got me through the 12 miles and I was elated that the volunteers made an awesome tunnel for us to run through as we finished. Of course, I had to re-enact this moment and everyone was more than happy to participate…THANKS!!!
I want to share with you the things I pray for every single day. Of course I pray for my family and friends (generally and very specifically), but I pray for myself to be blessed with peace, patience and wisdom. I call it PPW. I pray for peace because I struggle a bit with anxiety and not being able to relax. I pray for patience because I can be quick to judge and know that it doesn’t allow me to see the best in people. This goes along with forgiveness in mind. Forgiveness is about patience with myself and patience with others. Lastly, I pray for wisdom which, I feel, is all-encompassing and quite possibly the most important thing to me. Wisdom is the big picture and I definitely want to be able to see it. So, if you think about it, pray for those things for me too. It would be greatly appreciated 🙂 Oh, you could also pray for the blister on inside of my right foot. It really hurts and I know it’s going to be a pain during my 6 mile training runs this week…
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| It’s the white spot right on the edge of my foot. |
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| Here’s a glamorous close-up |
Finally, I wanted to share a funny little story about my run today. As I was chatting with my running buddies, I was trying to say, “in all seriousness” however; that word, “seriousness” was not in vocabulary this morning. I just couldn’t think of it, so, to get my point across, I said, “in all seri-osity.” I just about died laughing. It’s not as funny as I write it here, but 10 miles in to a 12 mile run, I might as well have been a stand-up comedian.
Okay, that’s all I have at the moment. Peace, Patience and Wisdom to you all!!!