to tell you about something we've been up to. I'll post day 3 of our weekend getaway today or tomorrow.
About 5 or 6 months ago, I decided to get on this particular bandwagon. It seemed everyone was doing it and it had been piquing my interest for years. It never quite interested me enough to actually go out and do it, however. It's hard and takes commitment, dedication, and consistency if you want to make strides. Literally.
My pastor and his son started about 13 months ago and have done superbly. They have inspired many. Pastor Matt and his wife, Pam, decided to give it a go and they have enjoyed it and have been as committed as anyone.
It was an intimidating thing for me... something I didn't think I would be very good at. Like I said, it requires hard work. I'm not immune to working hard or anything, I just wanted to succeed and I didn't want to quit.
I began to research it so that I would be as equipped as I possible could be and then I did it!
I started to follow a program called C25K and began to run.
Before long, I talked my husband into joining me so that I would have his company during my runs. And though one of his knees was giving him problems initially, those issues seem to have subsided.
One day last July my cousins from Indiana were all together for a family gathering and asked us if we would do a 4 mile run in September with them. You have to understand that I could barely run a city block without being completely out of breath and now I was considering running 4 miles straight. The really cool thing was that my cousin George and his wife, Cherie, were flying in from Texas to do the Fort4Fitness run, also. Hey if they can fly from TX, we can drive down from Michigan and do this thing!
And that's exactly what we did. Shawn and I ran our first race together and did it in just under 44 minutes. He stayed right by my side the entire time even though he was fully capable of leaving me in his dust.
With that accomplishment behind us, Pam asked me if we would be interested in running a 10K in November with her and Matt. Originally we were just going to do the 5K on that day. We talked it over and said yes.
Our race day is tomorrow. I will officially run 6.2 miles and I'm blown away that I can even do that. My prayer during my runs always contains Phillipians 4:13.
"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
It is by God's grace that I can do any of it.