Gasparilla 15K

Three years ago I was at Gasparilla observing my very first race.  I think it was the half-marathon.  I stood there watching people heavier than I was run across the finish line and realized with tears streaming down my face that there was no reason I couldn't run.  Two years ago I had run two other 5Ks but was nursing a knee injury and couldn't run the Gasparilla 5K.  I went anyway and asked God why I couldn't run.  He said that I had walked about 20 minutes from my car to where I was standing and some people can't even do that.  Last year I ran the Gasparilla 8K.  Three weeks ago I ran the 15K.  Will I run the half-marathon next year?

It was warm for February three weeks ago, even in Florida.  The weather was also quite foggy.  My phone does not much more than calls and texts, so I rarely use it to take pictures.  I don't carry my camera with me on runs, though, so I had to use my phone to capture the foggy conditions on Bayshore Boulevard. 

My friend and fellow Ragnar teammate Rusty also ran the 15K.  At about the 8-mile mark (a 15K is 9.3 miles), I saw him standing in the middle of the street.  He had decided to stop and wait for me so we could run together.  I had settled into my comfortable slow pace and was slogging along.  He took my hand and pulled me (mentally and physically) the rest of the way.  He made me increase my pace and at one time I said I didn't think I could keep up that pace because of the stitch in my side.  Somehow I did, though, and we crossed the finish line at 2:08.  My actual time was 2:04:47, which gave me a pace of 13:23 per mile, which is slightly faster than my average lately.  If Rusty hadn't pushed/pulled me to increase my pace, I would've finished much slower and been disappointed in my time.  So thank you, Rusty, for pushing me to do better!

He and his girlfriend, also a Ragnar teammate, left the race and went skydiving.  Sheesh!  These athletes don't know when to quit, do they?!nish line and realized with tears streaming down my face that there was no reason I couldn't run. Two years ago I had run two other 5Ks but was nursing a knee injury and couldn't run the Gasparilla 5K. I went anyway and asked God why I couldn't run. He said I had walked about 20 minutes from my car to where I was standing and some people can't even do that. Last year I ran the Gasparilla 8K. Yesterday I ran the 15K. Will I run the half-marathon next year?

My friend and fellow Ragnar teammate Rusty also ran the 15K. At about the 8-mile mark (a 15K is 9.3 miles total) I saw him waiting in the middle of the street for me. I had settled in to my comfortable slow pace and was slogging along. He took my hand and pulled me (mentally, not physically) the rest of the way. He made me increase my pace and at one time I said I didn't think I could keep up that pace. Somehow I did, though, and we crossed the finish line at 2:08. My actual time was 2:04:47, which gave me a pace of 13:23 per mile, which is slightly faster than my average lately. If Rusty hadn't pushed/pulled me to increase my pace, I would've finished much slower and been disappointed in my time. So thank you, Rusty, for pushing me to do better!

He and his girlfriend, also a Ragnar teammate, left after the race and went skydiving. Sheesh! These athletes don't know when to quit, do they?!

I posted the above on Facebook the day after the race and here is Rusty's comment and then mine in response:

I give The Lord all the Credit for you told me are you more concerned about your pace and time or more concerned about finishing race with a teammate that needs you so don't give me the credit give the Lord all his credit and glory for he's one Who turned me around to come back to you

Then I thank God for telling you to turn around and come back to me and you for listening and obeying.

Gasparilla 8K

Saturday

So here I am less than 24 hours before my 8K race and I feel like…well, to say I feel like death warmed over would be an exaggeration because…cough…this cold is getting better, but I certainly don’t feel prepared to run 5 miles tomorrow morning.  God, you’re really going to have to come through on this one.  I plan to take advantage…wheeze…of all three water stations and will walk for about a minute after drinking that water to let it settle.  I don’t want to have to walk any other times, but we’ll see how I feel.  Ideally, I would run the entire thing, which I know I can do when my body is at its peak.  Wheeze…Adjusting for feeling the way I do and the fact that I ran for only 7 minutes this morning at the end of 45-minute walk and I ran only 2.4 out of a possible 3.1 miles Tuesday, I’d say walking part of this 8K is inevitable.  L  I’d rather walk part of it than do any part of it on a stretcher or in the back of an ambulance, though.  Cough.

I feel woefully underprepared to race tomorrow.  I’m not completely better from this chest cold that moved up into my head.  I’ve been eating poorly the last two days.  The weather is warmer than I’d like. 

Are you completely bummed now listening…cough…to me complain?  At church tonight we sang this song, which is on my running playlist.  I made the changes indicated below as I sang it. 

Glory to God Forever

Before the world was made
Before you spoke it to be
You were the King of Kings
Yeah you were, yeah you were
And now you`re reigning still
Enthroned above all things
Angels and saints cry out
We join them as we sing

Chorus
Glory to God
Glory to God
Glory to God forever (repeat)

Creator God you gave
Me breath so I could praise
Your great and matchless name
All my days all my days
So let my whole life [race] be
A blazing offering
A life that shouts and sings
The greatness of our King

Bridge
Take my life [race] and let it be
All for You and for Your glory
Take my life [race] and let it be Yours

Sunday

My daughter and I headed to Tampa about 7:00 this morning so we would have plenty of time to find a parking spot, walk to the start line, etc.  No problems.  We got there before 8 and the race didn’t start until 9.  We had time to take this picture.

I had time to contemplate the size of the group running the 8K

Finally the waiting was over and the race began.  Somehow I ended up near the front of the group with the people who expected to run at a 7-minute-per-mile pace.  I run 12-13 minutes per mile.  Oops.  I made sure to stay to the side of the street so I wouldn’t impede the faster runners.  Apparently I wasn’t the only one who made that mistake because some people were walking even from the very beginning. 

Sometime in the second quarter of the race my running teammate Maria came up behind me.  That’s how we met at the 10K in December too.  We’ve never seen each other at church (it’s big) or when our team has been volunteering at a race.  We meet on the racecourse while we’re running.  J  This time we got to talk and run together for maybe half a mile.  We met up again in line for food afterward and she hung out with my daughter and me. 

During the race I coughed a few times but nothing that prevented me from running.  There were three or four aid stations and I made sure to get water and Gatorade
(Go Gators!) at each one.  I walked for a minute or two while it digested and then ran again.  Those were the only times I walked during the race even though I’ve had this cold!  Thank You, God! 

Before the race started I told my daughter it would be awesome if she could get a picture of me coming across the finish line and have the clock in the picture. 

She did it!  Isn’t she great?!  Let’s give her a hand, folks! 

I just checked the official results and my time was actually 1:08:16, 4 seconds faster than my watch showed.  I’ll take it!  The discrepancy between that time and the time on the clock is because the clock time was started when the gun went off for the beginning of the race but it was 25 seconds after that before I got to the start line. 

And I got a medal! 

 

I got a ribbon from the Strawberry Distance Challenge I did three weeks ago.  Other than that, I’ve never gotten a medal, ribbon, certificate, nuthin’ except the satisfaction of running, from any of the races I’ve run.  Until today.  I earned it and I’m wearing it proudly! 

There were 2924 runners in the 8K and I came in 2531^st. 

After standing in line to get a few postrace goodies like water, a banana, and the tail end of paella from The Columbia Restaurant (they were completely out of black beans and rice and 1905 salad), Brianne and I came home, I showered, and my parents took us out for lunch.  Mmmmmmm!!!  BBQ!!!

It was at Gasparilla two years ago that I stood as a spectator at the finish line of one of the races and cried as God began to give me the desire to run. I came home and wrote a plan on the calendar to increase the distance I ran and decrease the distance I walked (I was still doing a run/walk combo at that point).  Last year I had a knee injury and didn’t run from January until May so Gasparilla was out.  This is a watershed event for me.  If they’d had a 10K I would’ve done that.  I think I’ll do a 15K at another event, maybe in the fall, so next Gasparilla I might be doing the half-marathon (tears as I typed that), but I really need to increase my speed before I try to increase my distance.  I like my pace and increasing my distance really isn’t very hard at such a slow pace.  Looks like I need to challenge and push myself again.  And make a definite plan for increasing speed. 

Yesterday I told God He was really going to have to come through since I was recovering and underprepared.  I think He came through in a big way, don’t you?!

 

I Ran The Full 10K Distance!

I was supposed to run for 80 minutes on the 10K course this morning (Friday) and walk the rest, but I didn’t. 

I ran 82 minutes and the entire course!  The 80 minutes came during a song called Yes We Can by Me In Motion.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1oEgZSFXeI

How could I stop with a song like that playing?!  I decided to run until that song was over but then I was so close to the finish line I decided to just run the whole way!  One hour 22 minutes and 40 seconds. 

I’m tired now. 

But my God can do big things.  The last day or so I’ve wondered why I signed up for this 10K race and why I didn’t do the 5-mile run on Honeymoon Island next month or the 8K at Gasparilla in February first and work my up to a 10K.  I didn’t think I was ready and that I had taken too big a leap.  I was definitely feeling my humanity and my femininity.  What had I gotten myself into?  God knew, though.  And He knew that He was ready even though I didn’t think I was.  I just needed to get myself out of the way and let Him be the strength in my legs. 

I’m inviting all of you to my race next Saturday, December 15, at 8:00 a.m. at Coachman Park in Clearwater.  It would be so encouraging to have friends and family spaced out along the course in addition to at the start and finish line.  Signs are welcome!  Let me know if you can be there.  Here’s the link:  http://www.saynotodrugs.com/

And here's a map of the course. 

 

http://www.saynotodrugs.com/images/content/pdfs/2010-course-map.pdf

Jingle Bell Run 2011

God and I did it! I finished my second 5K race two weeks ago! I ran my first race in 39:10, a personal record at the time. In training since then I got my time down to 37:59. In the Jingle Bell Run I did it in 35:56! Praise God! I shaved 3:14 off my time in just two months!

Thank you, Melisa, for running this race and my first one with me! You keep me focused and running fast. When I'm by myself I tend to settle into a slower pace and only pull myself out of it reluctantly.

Thank you, Tori, for your interest in running and your encouragement to me.

Here are some (lots) of pictures from that night.

Me before the race in the T-shirt Kendall gave me back in July. I wrote scriptures that inspire me on it.

 

Me, my cousin Vikki (not my cousin Vinny!), and Tori after we got our goodie bags and glow necklaces.

Start and Finish Line

Some of the Calvary Chapel Running Team just before the start.

Terry, Melisa, Me, and Tori

This is a very popular, fun race so it was quite crowded.  We were barely moving at first but after about half a mile it thinned out.  We were wearing glow bracelets, too, but you can't see them under our long sleeves.  It was so cold that night!  Temperature was probably in the 50s, it was very windy, and we were on the Pier so the wind was whipping off the water and making us even colder.  It didn't keep us from sweating, though! 

Tori left Melisa and me after about the 3/4-mile mark.  Go Tori!  She's younger and can run faster than I can, and I  had already told her to go and run her best race even if she had to leave us behind.  She ran it in 30 minutes even!  Woohoo!  Congratulations!

Melisa and I kept running and having fun.  We talked about Jesus like we do on all our runs! 

As we neared the end, I started getting tired like I usually do.  Melisa kept encouraging me not to give up.  She even pushed me to run faster!  I love the race atmosphere!  Especially the end.  My body is so tired but seeing people cheering for me, especially people I know, gives me energy to finish well. 

Melisa and me at the finish line.  Tori's clapping for us. 



Here's a video of us crossing the finish line.  If it won't play, you can go to my Facebook profile and look under my videos for it.  https://www.facebook.com/michele.ervin

And recovering after the race!  The red faces are from wind and our own effort.  We earned them and we wear them proudly!

I'm now training for the Gasparilla 5K on March 3.  After that, I'll take some time to re-evaluate and see if I want to continue doing 5Ks or if I want to go for longer distances.  I don't always enjoy the process of running, but I do enjoy what God's teaching me through it.  

Day 3 of Training for two 5K races

If you haven't heard already, I'm in training for two 5K races, one in December 2011 and one in February 2012. Today was day 3 of spiritual, mental, and emotional training and day 1 of upping my physical training. I now walk 2 sections and jog 1 plus 60 steps and repeat that for 3 miles. Maybe I'll get some pictures up soon of my route so you can see what I'm talking about.

My reason for taking up this blog again, which I set up 1-1/2 years ago but never did anything with, is to encourage you to allow God to dream big within you so that together you and He can do amazing things, hard things, things that you'd never be able to do on your own. And to encourage you to give Him the glory and credit for them.

As I stood watching the Gasparilla 15K and 5K races in Tampa Saturday, tears started to stream down my face as I saw people who were as big as I am running those races. There's no physical reason I can't do this. There's certainly no spiritual reason. God was putting a dream in my heart that I never considered.

Ephesians 3:20 (MSG) - God can do anything, you know - far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, His Spirit deeply and gently within us.

I NEVER had any interest in running or anything athletic even when I was thin (ner), so I know this is God and not me. Also, as I stood watching the race I saw no one, absolutely no one, wearing a T-shirt, headband, visor, or anything giving God glory. I'm going to change that! Pictures of that will come in the near future too!

I'm new to blogging, so bear with me as I figure out how this works, make it look better, and learn how to add pictures. Comments and encouragement will be greatly appreciated! : )