My Farthest Distance Yet!

I ran 4.6 miles of a 6.2-mile (10K) course this morning.  This was in preparation for the 10K I want to do next month.  I’d gone the full 10K distance before but that was running half and walking half.  Today I ran more than half.  And that included going over the Clearwater Causeway bridge out and back! 

I took these as a panoramic shot but I don't know how to get them that way on the page.  You'll just have to imagine them side by side and imagine me running up, across, and down. 

I set a goal of running for 30 minutes, turning around, and running back.  I was only on the second song when I heard myself say, “22?  23?  How about 25?” 

“NO!”  I answered out loud.  “30!  I said 30 minutes!  Run for 30 minutes!”  While Mandisa was singing:

It's a good morning!
Wake up to a brand new day
This morning
I'm stepping, stepping on my way
Good morning
You give me strength
You give me just what I need
And I can feel the hope that's rising up in me.
It's a good morning

I was trying to tell myself to shorten the distance I was going to run.  (Sigh.  Shaking my head.)

I met my competition.  Her name is My Own Thoughts.  My competition is not against any other runner.  It’s not even against the voice in my head telling me to stop because there isn't a voice telling me to stop.  It knows I won’t do that.  It does know that there’s a very real possibility I will shorten the time or distance I’m going to run or that I’ll slow to a walk if it can catch me at the right (wrong) time.  It knows I’ll say that walking is better than doing nothing.  It knows I’ll say that the fact I’m running at all is an accomplishment and I’ve already run some so it’s okay if I walk some. 

This morning was not the right time to catch me in those thoughts!  I not only told myself (more like gasped) out loud that I would run for 30 minutes, I kept telling myself out loud, “Keep running.”  A few yards later, “Keep running.”  (Check my watch.  Only at 15 minutes, halfway to the turnaround point.)  “Keep running.  Look how far you’ve come!  You made it up the HUGE bridge, across the top, and you earned the downhill!  Wasn’t it fun?!  Yeah, the downhill was fun!  Keep running.” 

After 30 minutes I turned around and headed back.  I had maybe ¼ mile to go before I hit the bridge again.  I prayed that God would help me focus on His creation along the way to keep me going and that the sun wouldn’t blind me.  I didn’t want to focus on that!  I hit the bridge and, man, did I feel that incline!  Part way up, though, a cool breeze came from behind to keep me from getting overheated.  It was God pushing me!  No way could I slow to a walk now!  Besides, I knew I had to earn the downhill again.  On the downhill portion I even raised my arms up for a second!  (well, as much as my left arm could go without disconnecting my music) 

At some point on the run I was thanking God for giving me a body that can run.  I thought of the verse that says “You have given me a body to offer.”  Hebrews 10:5.  My running can be an act of worship.  I can offer it to God to be used to give glory and attention to Him.  Hebrews 12:1-2 says, “Dear brothers and sisters…give your bodies to God because of all He has done for you.  Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind He will find acceptable.  This is truly the way to worship Him.  Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.  Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

By offering my body for God to use as He sees fit, He can change my thinking so that I will know His will.  He can change my thinking from wanting to get by with a shorter distance to running farther than I ever have before!

I finished this run after 1 hour and 2 minutes and then drove it to see the distance I had gone - 2.3 miles in one direction and then back for a total of 4.6, the farthest distance I’ve ever completely run. 

Will I go 35 minutes in one direction the next time I do this course?  What do you think I’ll do?

This evening I got an email from a friend who put the two pictures together so you can get a better idea of the HUGE bridge I ran.  Thanks, Doug!  :-)

 

 

 

 

Easy or Challenging?

I started putting $1 into a jar every time I work out when I saw this on Pinterest. 

Today was a $2 day because I ran for 39 minutes and then swam.  It usually takes me about 40 or so minutes to run 3.1 miles so I set the alarm on my phone for 20 minutes.  I turned around when it went off and ran back the way I’d come but I got back to where I started one minute early.  I’m not sure why.  That suggests I ran faster on the way back, but I was running in sand and after last night’s big storm the beach was actually pretty ugly, to tell you the truth, and there were several spots where I had to wade through water almost up to my knees so I lost a few seconds each time.  Twice I stopped to take a picture of the brilliant rainbow and the more faded one that together made a double rainbow and once I stopped to take another picture.  I figured my time would be slower with all that, but it wasn’t.  I don’t understand why I seemed to finish faster, but I’ll take it!  Anyway, my plan for after running was to change into my bathing suit and swim out to the buoy.  I decided to not change and just swim in my running clothes, a pair of cotton capri exercise pants and a tech shirt (moisture-wicking).  I know, it’s not meant to wick water away from my body when swimming.  :-)  I just didn’t feel like messing with sweaty clothes then a bathing suit in a public bathroom.  I did take my running shoes off to swim, though! 

I swam out fine, but the waves were big (as I expected after the storm) so swimming back in I drank and breathed water a couple times in the first few minutes.  I don’t like drinking and breathing water.  I changed my stroke to one that requires me to use my legs more, which is the opposite of what I wanted to do.  Running works my legs.  The swimming stroke I do works my arms while my legs rest completely.  Oh well, sometimes you have to improvise. 

I may have run faster because I had the MP3 player my daughter got me for Christmas that I just started using.  Music makes me run faster, especially when it's music like NeedToBreathe, Mandisa, Newsboys, etc.! 

At any rate, here’s what God showed me today:

There were several places where I had to actually go through water, not just run on sand.  I had to slow down to a walk because the water was sometimes about halfway to my knees and other times even higher than that.  There are times in life when you’re going along just fine but then something unexpected comes up and you have to slow your pace in order to get through.  It’s okay, though, because God (represented by the water) is there to get you through the low spots.  Of course He’s always there, but I was more conscious of Him when I went through the water.  When I got to the other side I was a little slow running again for a step or two.  It’s okay to take a while to get back in the groove.  Just keep moving. 

I wish the picture I took to illustrate this next point had turned out okay and that I was able to get it from my phone to my computer.  On my right was the Gulf, then packed sand where I was running then a long low spot of a strip of water that ran pretty much my entire distance then what would normally be dry, loose sand but because of the storm it was wet and fairly packed.  That sand was a smoother, easier surface to run on but looked sterile and boring to me. 

Most analogies have only one meaning, so don’t try to read too much into what I’ve written here.  Sometimes in life you need a smooth, easy surface and there’s nothing wrong with running there.  I’m ready to take up the challenge of not so easy surfaces, though.  (Wait…am I?  That’s a big thing to say.)  God...I...uh...don't know if I meant that the way it sounded.  I like smooth, easy surfaces.  Yes, running in (walking through) water today was fun, but do I want to transfer that to life?  I don't...ummmmm...You're in charge.  Put me on the path You want me on, whether it's easy or challenging.  I mean that. 

Lows and Highs

I went to a Mandisa concert last night with a friend.

As we stood in line because we got there early, I watched other people arrive.  This concert was promoted as a Girls’ Night Out and I watched group after group of women park and walk over to the line.  My most frequent thought was, “There are a lot of fat women here.”  I soon realized how prideful that thinking is.  I have no basis for pride in what God has done with me the last almost three years, but there it was.  I’m certainly not model material but I was not only noticing the large women, I was secretly glad I didn’t look like them.  Not one of my best moments.  L  No, I don’t look like I used to, but I don’t look the way I’d like to either.  God’s not looking at the outward appearance, though.  He looks at our hearts.  My heart doesn’t run to food like it used to, but it sure ran to pride last night.  What did God see when He looked at my heart before the show?  Not ugly gluttony and self-indulgence but ugly pride.  Just as ugly.  Sin is sin. 

I saw a friend at the concert whom I went to high school with but haven’t seen in probably 20 years because we live in different cities now.  We’ve been friends on Facebook for a few years.  She just happened to have two seats open next to her family so my friend and I moved there.  FRONT ROW! 

Laura Story was also at the concert.  She sings the song “Blessings” and told us the story of how she came to write it.  Her husband was diagnosed with a brain tumor a couple years into their marriage and God wasn’t answering their prayers the way they wanted Him to.  You can find the whole story on YouTube. 

At intermission, they mentioned that the café was selling snacks and that one of those snacks was cream puffs with strawberries and chocolate.  :-DD  After talking to my friend for a few minutes I went to get in line.  I wanted those strawberries and chocolate!  It turned out to be these cream puffs ...

half a strawberry (not a very ripe one)...

And a drizzle of Hershey’s syrup.  I don’t like Hershey’s syrup.  I got it anyway and ate it standing in line for the bathroom.  Then I heard Mandisa on stage so I left the line and almost ran back to my seat! 

I had a fun time watching Mandisa front and center! 

When the show was over and we were walking out I heard God say about the brownie I’d also bought (yeah) that I needed to throw it away as a sacrifice.  I knew I needed to but it was in my purse, there was a huge crowd, and I didn’t see a trash can.  On the drive home I obeyed, put the window down, and threw it out. 
 

So it was a night of lows and highs.  I’ve prayed about my prideful attitude and repented of it.  The brownie cost $1 and I’m sure was from a store mix.  Big whoop.  Obeying God in throwing it out was worth so much more than the benefit I would’ve gotten from eating it. 

In other news, I determined this morning that I WOULD fast supper today and breakfast and lunch tomorrow since I've gotten away from that pattern lately.  Then my mom reminded me that our family had been invited to a birthday party this afternoon.  Sigh.  I asked a friend to pray that I would be self-disciplined.  I did fine and had just water to drink.  When my mom and dad went up to get food my dad brought me the biggest strawberry I'd ever seen, probably 3 inches long!  If you know me at all you know how I am with strawberries!  This one was white on the top and bottom, though, indicating that it wasn't ripe when picked.  My dad went back to the food line and I debated what I should do.  I didn't want to disappoint him by telling him I was fasting and wouldn't eat it, but I didn't want to fail again either.  I ended up biting off the white tip and throwing it in the garbage.  Then I took a bite of the middle of the berry (it probably would've taken me three bites to eat this whole strawberry) but it was bitter.  I made sure my dad wasn't looking and threw it in the garbage.  When I told my praying friend what I'd done she texted back, "Ha, going from sneaking food to eat out to sneaking to throw it away!"  I never thought of it like that.  Yes, I did used to sometimes sneak food or get rid of the evidence of fast food before I got home.  Now I'm sneaking to throw it away and not eat it.  Is there any end to what God can do?!