Phew! It's been a busy few weeks. The end of last month saw me finishing an eight week chunk of training at work, followed by a week of additional work training, and when I was finally done being trapped in a training room I started my semester at Malone. My workload is light, I only take a couple classes a semester, but this semester I'm taking Greek New Testament, which will definitely stretch me.
Speaking of a stretch, we're in the home stretch for the Chicago marathon (28 days to be exact). I still remember sitting at my desk back in February waiting for the 1 o'clock hour to hit so I could register. I have this fear, paranoia if you will, that every event, baseball game, concert, etc will sell out before I get a chance to buy a ticket or register. That day I kept refreshing the page until the registration link popped up. I signed up so fast that I wouldn't be surprised if I was bib number 00001. Three days later the field of 46,000 runners was already filled (record breaking time).
So why did I choose the Chicago marathon?
Good question! At the end of 2011 I felt like I had a good year of running. It was the first year I had run any races. I ran the Cleveland and Columbus half (with 5ks sprinkled here and there). With my eyes looking towards 2012 I knew that I wanted to run a marathon. I love the city of Cleveland and the Columbus half made me fond of the capital city. I was torn. Other races were on my radar too. Cincinnati, Canton, the Air Force marathon in Dayton, even Pittsburgh (cringe). To sort out the jumbled mess I sat at my desk and had a few minutes of silence, so I decided to pray. Does God care about what race I run? Probably. Maybe. I just prayed for clarity and to take the decision out of my hands. There are more important things to focus on in life aside from what race I'll run, right? Well wouldn't you know the minute I was done I popped over to this site Facebook and what's the top story on there? Active:Water is asking for people to join the Chicago Marathon team. I kid you not! True story. Pending wife approval, this was the single easiest decision I made. She approved, duh.
I want to take a moment here to thank my lovely wife for being so gosh darn supportive of everything I put myself into. Whether it's going to Armenia on a mission trip and baking hundreds of cookies to fund-raise or selling headbands, taking pictures, and watching a small countries worth of kids to raise money for this Chicago trip, she's always there by my side. These goings on stress us (and stretch us) but we grow so close through these tests. She's stuck with me for good! Praise the Lord!
Training update:
Training is going good. It could be better, but I feel like I can tackle these 26.2 miles. Run, walk, or crawl I'll cross that finish line. An Olympic marathoner injured himself during the race, but kept running till he finished. At the end of the race they asked him why he kept going. His response is famous, you've probably heard it, but I remind myself of it every so often. "My country didn't send me 10,000 miles for me to start the race, they sent me to finish" I'm paraphrasing that quote, but you get the idea. All of your support and sponsorship through Active:Water is getting me to Chicago. I'm not going to start the race, I'm there to finish!
With that said yesterday I went out for my long run of the week and it was very rainy. To the point where my eyes were barely open. Big, hard-hitting, rain drops. I wore a jacket, thinking it would keep my innards dry. ha. I was a big 200 lb wet blanket by mile 5 or 6. Parts of me really wanted to stop or cut the run by about 10 - 15 miles but I focused on a video that I saw recently. (Note to Blogger: there are other sites that show videos. Help a brotha out and let me post a vimeo video on my page.) The video is of kids using a well pump. The water coming out is crystal clear and the kids love it. They're cupping their hands and drinking it, some are just putting their hands under the pump to feel the water flow between their fingers. They were so excited for something that we look at as nothing more than a convenience. I'm not going to say that thinking of this made me break a personal best or I was then able to float above the concrete but it kept me going till I finished.
The video I talked about is one Active:Water's facebook page. Go check it out. Since you're surfing the Internet anyway, how about you mosey on over to my fund-raising page and sponsor me! I'm asking everyone to just give 5 dollars, that's one pumpkin spiced latte. A donation of $5 is bigger than you think and can help a lot of people!
https://activewater.myetap.org/fundraiser/Asia/individual.do?etapCacheBuster=1343581307551&participationRef=3357.0.20368397&shareMedium=label.facebook
I'm almost one third away from reaching the goal I chose. I have faith that it'll be reached.
THANK YOU!
Once the race is over I'm going to write out hand written thank yous to everyone who gives. I'm not saying that as an incentive to give. You've read my blog, my writing isn't a prize lol. It's actually barely legible!
ANYWAY
I have the upcoming week off work. The first week off I've had this year! I have visions of making breakfast for the girls, "sleeping in" (for me that's about 7 or 8 a.m.), and staying up late playing songpop with my wife.
Have a good week everybody!
P.S. Buy Lecrae's new album "Gravity"! It's great!
