Training to Run the Sunshine Skyway Bridge!

I've been meaning to write this post for the last few months, ever since I signed up for this race.  Why the time keeps getting away from me or I just don't think of it when I have the time to do it I don't know.  Anyway, let's get started!

Ever since I started running 7 years ago I always said that if they ever closed the Sunshine Skyway Bridge not far from where I live for a race, I would run it in a heartbeat.

A year or so ago I heard of a half-marathon trying to get organized over the bridge.  Unfortunately it didn't pan out.  A few months later I heard of a 10K being organized there.  I investigated as well as I could and after determining that it was legitimate and likely to actually be run, I plunked my money down quickly to reserve my spot in this race.  Then the training began.

I ran a half-marathon 2 years ago.  That's 13.1 miles so 6.2 should be no problem except that for all of 2016 and 2017 I had only rarely run more than 5 miles at a time.  It wasn't until August 2017 that I determined to get back to what I'd been running before.  I started out by running for 2 minutes and walking for 10 minutes for just 3.1 miles.  I gradually decreased the time to 2 minutes running and 9 minutes walking, then 8 minutes, and so on while increasing the distance to at least 6.2 miles.  After I signed up for this race I had to put that plan into overdrive to get to where I'd be running the entire race.  This morning I got to the point where I ran for 2 minutes and walked for 1-1/2.  I plan to be running the entire thing on race day, except that I may have to walk some of the uphill portion.

Now, about that uphill portion.  The Skyway bridge is a total of 5.5 miles so this 6.2-mile race will start and end at rest areas on the south and north ends.  The bridge starts out flat over Tampa Bay then about 2 miles in it starts to incline and goes up for a full mile!



There is a little bit of flatness at the top




and then the downhill part is also a full mile



and then it goes back to flat.  The views of God's creation of sky and sea are awesome all along the bridge, but unbelievable at the top!

I like to prepare for my races by running on the course, but that was impossible for this one.  No pedestrians are allowed on the bridge, so I was driving to the next highest bridge I could find in the area and running that.  It's nowhere near the height or length of the Skyway but it was the best I could do.

Two months ago I bought a membership at a gym to use their treadmills to simulate the bridge.  That's great for the uphill, but these treadmills don't simulate downhill.  One time I turned around and walked backward on it while it was in the highest position but that didn't work the same muscles as actual downhill running.  Oh well.  I'm doing the best I can.

Now we're less than 2 weeks out from the actual race and I'm getting excited!  I know I've prepared as well as circumstances have allowed and even though it's my desire to run the entire race, if I have to walk some (especially the uphill portion), there will be no shame.

As in all of my races and even in my training runs, my desire is to glorify God no matter what.  If I run the entire thing, God gets the glory!  If I have to walk some of it, God gets the glory!  If I end up getting injured (please no!) and can't complete it, God still gets the glory for what I accomplish, how I handle the circumstance, and my training leading up to it.

I'll post an update after the race, so be looking for it!

I Ran My First 10K!

Here's Calvary Chapel's Running Team before the race:

We all gathered at the start line, 5Kers and 10Kers in a combined start.  I was excited when they asked the 10Kers to move to the left (the faster lane!) before the race began. And we're off! I had adrenaline helping me get up the hill and for the first 1 or 2 tenths of a mile. Then my body protested. It usually does, especially at the beginning of an actual race when my pace is determined by adrenaline and the people around me. At first it's really slow, almost a walk, then I match the people running nearby. That never lasts more than a minute, though! I soon settled into my normal pace. People began passing me, but that was okay. I wasn't trying to win. We rounded a corner and neared the bridge. The Bridge. The Huge Bridge. The huge bridge that I've run a dozen times. Before the race there was heavy fog, so much that we couldn't see the bridge from the park and it's very close. As I crested the bridge I looked out to see the water but I couldn't see it because the fog was so thick.

This isn't an actual picture of it since I didn't have my camera with me and wouldn't have stopped during an actual race to take a picture anyway. It was this thick, though.

I was a little sad about not being able to see God's creation of sky and water. He then reminded me that fog is His creation too. Oh yeah. It is! He was closer to me, enveloping me, than if I had been able to see and marvel at His other creations like I was expecting to. He reminded me that pilots learn to fly by sight and then by what their instruments tell them even when they can’t see the sky/horizon/earth. I was running by faith, not able to see much of what was around me but knowing it was still there.

Downhill was not as fun with hundreds of people around. I couldn't open up as much as I would've liked. We approached the 5K turnaround. I felt like part of an elite club when I continued on and didn’t turn around. J

I wasn't paying attention to my music as much with so many people around. People were passing me but I didn’t mind (too much). We turned north at the roundabout. The directions and map said that the 10K turnaround was a little past Bay Esplanade so I went about a block past in training. Apparently “a little” to the race organizers is about *4* blocks! That added another minute or two to my total time. Wait. If that added a minute or two to my time and if I finished 42 seconds faster than the one and only time I ran the entire distance in training, then I finished quite a bit faster than expected! I used the calculator on my phone and it said that my pace was 13:22 instead of 13:30 like it had been, but that’s incorrect. Well, not incorrect; actually I interpreted it incorrectly. First, I didn’t take into account what I just told you about the longer distance and shorter time. Second, I forgot to convert seconds (time) to tenths (distance). Or something like that. 82 minutes divided by 6.2 miles equals 13.22, which is 13 minutes and 12 seconds per mile, not 13 minutes and 22 seconds. So I went faster in addition to going longer! I like that!

Somewhere around mile 3-1/2 I felt like I could go on like this forever. That almost always happens but not always in the same place. The first few seconds I run I feel powerful. Then my body realizes what I’m requiring of it and protests. NO!!! STOP NOW!!! When I don’t stop, my body realizes it better kick it into gear. It does, in its 43-year-old obese way. Then I tend to stay in that zone for the majority of the run except for some occasional bursts of speed that last for a few seconds.
At about mile 4-1/2 a lady said she liked the back of my shirt:

 

 

Going up the bridge at mile 5 was tough, as it always is. I didn’t slow to a walk, though. It might have looked like I did, but I didn’t. J I went down the spiral thinking that this race was almost over. As I crested the last uphill the woman in front of me turned around and asked if I was Michele Ervin. She is a member of my church’s running team but we had never met. We ran the last 0.3 miles together, which was nice.

As I turned the last corner and began the downhill path to the finish line (I love that they structured the course that way!), I saw my family and friends waiting! That and the downhill slope caused me to run faster!

I even disconnected the cord from my MP3 player, raised both arms into the air, and ran that way for a few yards! Victory! My first 10K completed without injury! I'll do another post when I get some more of the pictures they took. 

I crossed the finish line at 1:21:58 according to my watch. 

 

The official records say 1:22:10.  I came in 56th out of 61 women in my age group in the 10K.  I didn't finish last!  I came in 613th out of 638 total runners in the 10K. 

People say that we need to get out of the way and let God work, but I think many people don't know how to do that. It can be difficult to understand what our responsibility is and what God's responsibility is and not get the two confused. In running it's a little easier than it may be in other situations. I know I have to dress appropriately, move my feet, pump my arms, make my lungs expand, practice, set goals, push myself, etc. Then when race day comes I have to take my concerns that I'm not fully prepared, set them aside, and let God do what He does best. Show Himself. He didn't show his power in making it so that I won the race or even my age group, and I didn't expect Him to. I won by running faster than this woman

That makes me a winner in my opinion no matter what the official results say.  J 

 

 

Why Am I Running a 10K?

At the end of our run Thursday, I was telling my running partner that my first 10K is in just over two weeks.  She said, “I don’t know why you want to do a 10K.”  That got me trying to remember my reasons for doing this.  I want to increase my distance because endurance is the part of running I do best.  I’m not fast and my form isn’t something people admire.  A famous runner said, “I don’t just go out there and run.  I like to give people watching something exciting.”  That famous runner was not me.  J  But there has to be more to it than that.  I began running to allow God to dream big within me so that He and I could do amazing things, hard things, things that I’d never be able to do on my own.  And boy have we!  I’ve done six official 5Ks and run that distance several times a week for almost 1-1/2 years.  I covered that distance with a combination of walking and running for six months before that.  A few years ago I didn’t even want to walk one mile because it was too hot or I didn’t want to take the time. 
 
So I want to move on from 5Ks because I endure.  And to show what God can do in a person who lets Him have His way, whatever that way is.  Hence, a 10K (which is 6.2 miles). 

On the course yesterday morning my goal was to run for 65 minutes and then walk the rest of the way.  I realized that the first 3 miles or so are easy.  Well of course they are!  I run that twice a week!  No sweat!  (I mean no problem.  Believe me, there is sweat.  J)    Even running another mile or so isn’t too difficult.  After that I start running out of my own strength and have to rely on God’s.  That’s where it gets interesting.  As I neared the bridge on the return trip, I wondered if my 65 minutes would end while I was on the bridge and I started to think of options.  One was that I could stop then and walk the rest of the way but I wouldn’t get to run downhill.  Another was that I could continue running the uphill to earn the fun downhill, even though that would put me over 65 minutes of running.  I’ve become a person who doesn’t shy away from a hard task, so I decided to keep running until I was done with the downhill.  This thought process took a few minutes and I was at 64:something and part way up before I decided I would keep running.  That trek up the bridge was HARD!  It felt like I was going so slow that I was walking sometimes.  (I wasn’t.)  I even got tears in my eyes.  Were they from the sun I was running directly into, the cold wind I was running directly into, or the figurative brick wall I was running directly into?  Whichever, there they were.  I thought of a verse I wrote on a running shirt, Psalms 34:1 – "My lungs expand with His praise!"  During all this, DC Talk’s ‘Jesus Freak’ kept me going.  So did David Crowder Band’s ‘Foreverandever, etc” because it felt like the uphill climb was taking forever. 
 

When I meet other runners or bicyclists going in the opposite direction sometimes we smile or say good morning and sometimes we don’t.  About this time a man was coming toward me and I could tell he wanted to say something so I continued to look at him rather than away.  He held up his hand so we could high five!  I’ve never had a stranger do that before!  It gave me the energy to keep running.  I never really noticed the leveling off at the top of the bridge, but I did begin to notice the downhill increase in speed.  I even held my arms out to my sides for a few seconds as if I could fly!  That makes it even more fun!  I ran to the end of the spiral and checked my time. 

71 minutes.  Six minutes longer than I’d planned to run.  I even ran past what was going to be next Monday’s goal – 70 minutes.  (Next Monday’s goal is now 75.) 

So I run to show what God can do when I let Him have His way and to encourage others to let Him have His way in their lives. 

 

Getting Closer to the 10K!

The other day I was driving and saw this sign:

 

No, thank you.  No; not thank you.  Just no.  2X is the size of clothes I used to wear (and sometimes even 3X), so I want no part of food that would very quickly get me back there.  Not that I want fake Taco Smell food anyway. 

I got up at 5:00 this morning to do my long run on the 10K course.  My goal was to run for at least 50 minutes, but I wasn’t able to do this course Monday for 45 minutes like I’d planned so I wondered if 50 minutes would be too much of a stretch for me. 

I had to put some gas in the car so I stopped to do that.  I paid $20 and look how much gas it gave me:

 

6.2 gallons.  A 10K is 6.2 miles!  Interesting! 

I got out and started my run up a small hill like usual and then it leveled out.  I ran almost 1 mile to the beginning of the big bridge then started to earn my downhill.  I really felt like I was in a groove this morning.  I’m still slow, but I enjoy running.  Especially this morning for some reason.  I came off the fun downhill and the long flat part wasn’t as difficult as it has been before, maybe because the cold temperature made it invigorating.  I hit the shops on Clearwater Beach chugging along and turned around about a block after Bay Esplanade.  I don’t know the exact turnaround point, but the instructions said it was just after that street so I went a block farther.  Later when I clocked it in the car the turnaround point I used was exactly 3.1 miles.  Yay me!  At the turnaround I was only at about 40 minutes so I continued running back the way I’d come.  Then I switched to walking at 50 minutes.  I made the change to more accurately run the course that the actual race will take and go back across the bridge on the opposite side from the one I’d come over on.  I didn’t know how many minutes I would walk, but I knew I would have to start running again no later than the base of the bridge.  I ended up walking for 18 minutes, probably longer than I needed to.  Live and learn and change it next time.  There was a water fountain so I got a drink and then walked a short distance to the base of the bridge.  I started running up it and saw where it looked like the railing leveled off.  Yay!  The top!  Then why does it still feel like I’m going up?  Sigh.  Whatever.  Keep running.  I finally felt the downhill and then I saw what they call the helix but I like the word spiral better.  There is a spiral down ramp on that side of the bridge instead of just a long slope on the side I’ve been running.  Fun!  There were no walkers, other runners, or cyclists so I had it all to myself! 

 

Round and round she goes!  Where she stops nobody knows!  Oh no; she knows where she’ll stop – the finish line!

Oh.  There’s another hill to run up. 
 

 

I finished running the spiral and ran up the hill.  I knew that it would be flat at the top and that I’d make a left turn there, run a few blocks, and then make another left turn and go downhill to the finish line!  Knowing that made it not so bad. 

I made the finish line (Well, Coachman Park.  I don’t know where the exact start and finish line will be.) in 1:23:42.  That’s a 13:30 pace, which is pretty slow, but later I remembered that I walked for 18 minutes, so when I run the whole thing (notice I said when and not if ;-)) my pace will be faster.  I need to work on getting my pace faster regardless, though. 

I’m going out of town for Thanksgiving but still plan to run two long distances at 55 and (GASP!) 60 minutes and two easy 40-minute runs.  I want to do trail running, though, so we’ll see how that affects my endurance. 

I'm Getting There!

At the end of my last blog post I asked if you thought that next time I’d go 35 minutes in one direction before turning around. 

Raise your hand if you thought I would.  You win, because I did! 

I took the same course except for a little correction to start on the right street, on the north side of the park and not the south side.  Oops.  I think I still need to correct another part.  I run on the same side of the bridge out and back, but I think the actual course comes back on the other side.  My way takes safety into account but with vehicle traffic banned from the course they can do things a little differently on race day.  In my last post I had two pictures of the bridge that I couldn’t get side by side so you could see how big it is.  My friend Doug melded the two together for me so you can get a better idea of the length and height of this bridge I run twice two days a week.  Thanks, Doug!

I ran for 35 minutes, almost to the turnaround point for the actual race, then turned around and went back.  I ran for a total of 40 minutes, which is my usual running time, and then walked for 4 minutes.  I’m a little disappointed about that, but I started the race hungry and battled that all the way through.  I then ran some, walked a few more minutes, ran, walked, etc.  I walked for a total of probably 10 minutes.  I made sure I ran the entire bridge, though!  I have to earn the fun downhill and I do that by running the uphill. 

I traveled 2.7 miles in one direction and then back for a total of 5.4.  I’m getting there!  I know I may have to walk part of the distance on race day, and that’s okay.  I’d like to run the whole thing, but it’s okay if I don’t.  As long as I run the entire bridge both times, that is!  I finished the course in 1:13:54, which is about 13:30 per mile.  A little slower than I’d like but, again, that’s okay.  I’m running.  Period. 

I think I’m going to run the course again on Monday, so I’ll let you know how that goes.  Will I go 40 minutes in one direction?  If I continue to run the course twice a week and increase by 5 minutes each time, I can be running the entire thing by December 7.  When I think about that I get a nail-biting, I-don’t-know-about-this feeling like I probably had when I registered for my very first race without being able to run the whole thing at that time.  And that was an easy 3.1 miles!  Look how far God has brought me!  I did run the full distance about a week before race day, though, just like this will be (I hope). 

I know I need to eat a better meal the night before a long run.  I had a big lunch yesterday and a small supper, which is what I prefer in general (eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and supper like a pauper), but which doesn’t work too well when I’m pushing my body beyond its limits.  Live and learn. 

Okay, I interrupted composing this post to actually register for the race.  Exciting!  I have an exercise jar (actually a piggy bank) into which I put a dollar each time I run or otherwise exercise. 

I took $19 out of it to pay the fee.  I’m committed now! 

One of the songs on my playlist is the Veggie Tales song about knocking down the walls of Jericho that I adapted to my running:  “Keep running…and I will knock down that wall!  Keep running…and I am not gonna fall!  It’s plain to seeeeeee my God is very big, so keep running…I will be knocking down that wall!”  I think for this race I want friends or family members stationed somewhere along the route with a paper banner of a brick wall and the words “I Can’t” on it.  As I run by I’ll break through the banner!  That sounds like fun! 

Once again, my friend Doug came through for me.  I googled pictures of brick walls but don't know how to add words to an image.  I made a brick wall texture background in Word and added "I Can't" to it but it wouldn't copy to this blog.  I asked Doug for help and he sent me this picture.  Um, that's quite a wall, there, Doug.  Thank you. 

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!  :-)

 

 

 

 

Thoughts After My First Midnight Run

It’s my normal pattern to run early in the morning as soon as it gets light, about 6:00.  My first official race was at 7:00 a.m., my second race was in the evening after dark, my next two races were on the beach at sunset, and now I can say I’ve run at midnight!  I ran under a full moon last night from 11:25 p.m.-12:08 a.m. 

This was a growing race and not just because they had a record number of people register.  It was a growing and stretching race for me.  With my first race I wanted to know the course well in advance so I could run it and be very familiar with it.  I don’t like surprises.  With my second race, some of the course was the same as my first one, but I still had to find out the exact start, route, turnaround, and finish.  My beach races were in straight line, but I still observed one last year without running it and didn’t run until this year.  With this midnight run I saw where the course started and finished and that was all.  Really, it’s not like I’m going to be leading the pack and need to know for that reason!  So for me to not bother trying to learn ahead of time the exact route was a step up from having to know everything possible about a situation.  It was…faith?  It was going with the flow, which can be a problem for me.   

We started off and had a very slight incline over some water after, I’m guessing, 2/10 of a mile.  Hardly noticeable.  We ran some more and as I looked ahead I could see the crowd like they were higher than I was.  Were they on a bridge or a hill?  We’re in Florida and on the coast so hills are an extremely slim possibility.   It was a bridge, the Dunedin Causeway. 

About a mile into the run was the beginning of the bridge.  I’d never run a bridge before, but I have now!  It really wasn’t very hard, but then it wasn’t a very steep bridge.  I liked running over the metal grate at the top and seeing the water below.  It was such a gradual decline that I hardly noticed it on the way down.  Oh, I just remembered that I’ve run the incline on part of the Pinellas Trail to an overpass.  I forgot about that. 

Anyway, the run continued toward Honeymoon Island.  I worshipped as I looked at God’s creation under a full moon with a minimum of human influence (lights).  It was almost the way He intended it to be.  The only sounds were feet pounding the pavement, lungs breathing heavily, and the occasional very breathy word or two.  After reaching the turn-around point at 20 minutes (good time), I saw the bridge again.  I wanted to run it up and down both ways, so if I was going to walk at all, the time to do it was before I got to it.  I walked for two minutes then began running again.  I easily climbed the bridge running, ran over the metal grate again, and then ran down the other side.  One bridge up and down up and down conquered!  Bring on another! 

I had passed up the first water station, which was ridiculously close to the start line in my opinion, because drinking water while I run upsets my stomach and I don’t need to for just a 5K.  On the way back, though, I decided to get water and pour it on my face.  Why had I never thought of that before?  Oh well, live and learn and improve.  I got a cup, poured it on my face, and man did that feel good!  (Why did I not take up swimming instead of running?)  The end was in sight after that, and I kept running. 

This had been my most spiritual official run in that I had been praying frequently thanking God for giving me the ability to run at all, protecting my knee that had been giving me very brief twinges of pain earlier in the evening, giving me this beautiful creation to enjoy, good-functioning lungs, a full moon, water, breeze,...  I had to sing my “Keep Running” song only a handful of times. 

As I turned from the road into the parking lot where the finish line was I started to pick up speed.  I always do that in official runs but struggle to do it in practice.  I crossed the finish line after 43 minutes and 11 seconds,

a little slower than I had run the last few times in practice but this run included a bridge both ways so I wasn’t too disappointed.  I’m happy and look forward to shaving more minutes off my time and running more bridges!

I came in 81st out of 99 in my age group.  I'm moving up!  I had a per-mile pace of 13:54.  These numbers are a little different from what I reported on Facebook, but I got them from the official results.  The FB numbers were just what I saw last night immediately after the race. 

Observing a Half-Marathon

Yesterday morning I went to support a friend who was running her first half-marathon.  I got to downtown Clearwater about 6:45 (yes, a.m.), parked, and walked several blocks to the starting line.  I didn’t see my friend or anyone else I knew, then I decided I should go back to the car and get my camera, so I did that.  I teared up and wished I was running, but there’s no way my knee would let me.  After the runners took off,

I started to head to the finish line at Clearwater Beach.  I didn’t want to drive because I know how crazy traffic is on Clearwater Beach, so I started walking but didn’t know how far it was going to be.  I ended up walking BACK past the car, kind of following the runners,

Hold on…alarm just went off.  Time to do 1:30 on the elliptical. 

Huff!  Puff!  I’m back.  Got my heart rate up to 167. 

and headed toward Clearwater Beach.  I walked up a HUGE bridge.  

with no problems.  I was only walking, but still…no problems!  I took a picture of the bridge from the starting line because it looked so massive.  Like my desire to run again.  Is this my mountain?  If I can just get to where I’m running over this bridge, will I have conquered?  Or are my knees my mountain?

I walked down that massive bridge, walked some more, walked farther, and kept walking.  All the way to Clearwater Beach.  As I made my way to the finish line, the first runners were coming across the finish line.  It was a little more than 90 minutes since the start of the race.  I’d been walking for an hour and a half.  Wow!  At a fairly fast pace, too.  Not exactly race walking, just my normal fast pace.  But I’d kept it up for 1-1/2 hours! 

I started looking for my friend’s family or anyone else I knew, but saw no one.  (Why does God keep putting me in situations by myself involving races?  I’ve gone to a few of them now and not seen anyone I know.  What are you teaching me with that lonely feeling, God?)  I did see some notable things, though.  Like this

The homemade message on the back of her T-shirt says, “I ‘m running because there’s food @ the finish line.”  Are you kidding me???  NOOOOOOO!!!  Big sigh. 

Then I saw this woman

At first I thought, “Oh, honey, let me talk to you.”  I wanted to tell her how Jesus has changed me and how He can change her.  After I took the picture and got closer to her, I saw that she was holding a 5K medal in her hand.  I assumed that she was holding it for someone else because if I had just run or even walked a 5K at that size I would’ve been wearing that medal proudly.  She even had the ribbon part folded up so that the whole thing fit in her hand and was hardly visible.  I saw her from the front later and she was wearing a race bib.  She had done it!  I was wrong!  Well then, you GO, girl! 

Hold on…alarm just went off.  Time to do another 1:30 on the elliptical. 

Huff!  Puff!  I’m back.  Got my heart rate up to 165 this time. 


I kept walking and was getting hungry.  Then I saw this

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

This is me in the blustery, gray day.  You can see the pelting rain on my glasses.  This is me happy after resisting Yuckdonald’s.  J

I kept walking and saw this on a T-shirt

I’d love to see this sign.  No, I’d love to run past this sign!  (Did I really just say that?) 

So let’s wrap up this lesson, boys and girls.  What have we learned today?  Remember when Jesus told Peter that the spirit is willing but the body is weak?  My spirit is very much willing to continue running.  The last few months I’ve thought that my body was weak.  Yesterday I learned that my body is capable of much more than I give it credit for.  There may be one more race added to my church’s running team’s schedule that I will at least walk.  Beginning this morning I increased my time on the treadmill by 50%, from 1 minute to 1-1/2 minutes every waking hour that I’m home.  I will start walking a full 3.1 miles instead of just 1 mile.  (How did I EVER drop back that far?)  I will run as my knee allows, finding a balance between the fact that my body is capable of much more than I give it credit for and the need to listen to my body and not do permanent damage to my knee. 

 

Hold on…alarm just went off. Time to do another 1:30 on the elliptical. 

Huff! Puff! I’m back.  Also, I remembered to do a plank this time, and upped it from 20 seconds to 30.  It wasn't easy.  1, 2, 3, 4, 5...just 20...6, 7, 8, 9, 10...your body is capable of much more than you think...11, 12...no it's not...13, 14, 15, 16, 17...YES IT IS...18, 19, 20...how about just 25?...21, 22, 23, 24...NO!  Keep going!...25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30!!!  Whew!