On September 12, 2010 after 5 hours and 1 minute of running (26.21 miles) my marathon was COMPLETE!
As I sit down to blog about the marathon, so many thoughts, emotions, and feelings come over me. I have so much I could say, but if I wrote it all down, I’d be writing a book instead of a blog ;)
I need to first rewind before blogging about the marathon.
All of last week I was sick. I spent most of the week coughing, lying around, coughing some more, attempting to sleep through the coughing spells, and Oh, did I mention coughing?! Haha. You get the picture. My voice was pretty sweet too. I sounded manly and tough :)
Wednesday night I had a conversation with a good friend and was reminded that this marathon wasn’t about the actual marathon. Well, it was, but it wasn’t. It was about the journey. It was about all the training, dedication, hard work, tough runs, and all the time that was spent in preparation. It was about my friendship with Charisse and how it had grown in training for the marathon together. It was about how our runs had been used for glorifying the Lord. Hebrews 12 reminded me “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith…”
Last Thursday, as I laid in bed, I journaled, “I haven’t done much. Mostly slept and laid around. I feel like a bum. I’m supposed to run a marathon Sunday. Ha. Lord only in your strength. Isaiah 40:31 "but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."
I kept that verse close to my heart all week. Even the night before, as I was sitting at dinner with my parents, my mom looked at me and said, “Are you sure you should run that marathon tomorrow? You make me nervous.” The night before the marathon was another restless night, full of coughing spells. When my alarm went off at 5am, I just laughed. I thought to myself “Ok Lord, this is completely in your hands. If I’m going to run this, it’s going to be on your strength.”
Well, there is no beating around the bush…as Charisse and I began our run, my lungs were clear! The Lord had proven Himself faithful again :) I had asked a few friends to pray for me throughout the week and I knew prayers were being answered. I felt a sense of peace while I ran too. It was easy to breath. I could even talk and tell stories!
There was only one point when my lungs began to fill with junk. I told my running partners (Charisse and Terena(a girl that began running with us around mile 4)) that we needed to stop and pray for my lungs to clear again. So we did. And they cleared. The rest of the race I felt freedom from junky lungs!! I also felt good running…I felt strong…when I crossed the finish line I felt like I could have kept running. Praise the LORD!!
The minute I crossed the finish line though, my lungs began to fill again, and my man voice came back! Haha. I just laughed.
The Lord had blessed me. He gave me the strength (and clear lungs!) to run the race. That’s all I really had prayed for :)
I feel like the Lord taught me so much more, but like I said, you’d be reading all night! SOO….faithfulness. That was the biggest lesson. He is so stinkin’ faithful.
Lastly, I felt so blessed to have a number of people cheering me on as I ran the marathon. I want to give a shout of thanks to Mom, Dad, Betsy, Stacey, Drew, Brad, Lexi, Mike, Jackie, Michelle, Jamie, Abigail, Paul, Mert, Lin, Kristen, Celeste, Jess, Emily, and Jon for coming to cheer me on! I was blessed beyond what I deserve!!
Thank you Jesus!!
(on a side note…went to work today…they didn’t like me being there and sent me to the doctor…bronchitis it is!...antibiotics and cough meds now on board...)
